The Fall of the Sith
by Sith Master2019
Summary: SEQUEL TO THE RISE OF THE SITH! The Rebel Alliance is growing strong and ObiWan, now known as Darth Vader is busy hunting them down while his master The Emperor is trying to find someone who he fears could turn ObiWan away from the dark path he is on.R
1. Secrets Revealed, Secrets Hidden

_**Welcome my readers to the sequel to The Rise of the Sith. I would have posted it sooner but the alerts were not working so I thought why post it if no one is going to know about it? Anyway I'm going to flat out state now that this story takes place 20 years after the previous one just so I don't get any questions even though I am going to say it at the beginning of the chapter. Also note that Mara Jade will be brought in as The Emperor's Hand and Raz Vena's purpose has not been served yet.**_

Chapter 1: Secrets Revealed, Secrets Hidden

20 years after previous story

The Empire flourished now and held a strong leash upon it's galaxy. Emperor Palpatine ruled with an iron fist, a ruthless dictator from his throne atop the pyramid like Imperial Palace on Coruscant. However one thing stood in front of the Empire's awesome power, a Rebel Alliance that was growing from a thorn in their side to a knife in their back. Sidious had suspected this ever since former Senator Padmé Amidala delivered the Petition of Two Thousand to him in his time as Chancellor, as of now Amidala's whereabouts were unknown, as were her husband's Anakin Skywalkers, and former Jedi Masters Yoda and Windu. Sidious suspected they were working closely with the Rebel Alliance. In fact he had proof.

No matter though, the Empire was almost complete with a major construction project, a super weapon, designed in the secret facility of the Maw Cluster near the planet Kessel. It was referred to as project Death Star, the construction of a super battle station that had the capability to destroy a planet. With that the pitiful Rebel Alliance would be crushed.

Meanwhile as this was going on The Emperor had completed the training of a young woman, she twenty. The Emperor had built a training facility below his throne room in the spire of the palace it resided in, in that training room the Emperor's Hand was born her name was Mara Jade. She was well training in numerous types of combat with weapons, as well as hand to hand combat, jumping, climbing, scaling walls, using the Force to a limited degree, and espionage which was her primary function. She was currently on a mission. Since his encounter with Raz Vena twenty years ago Sidious had been searching for her because he believed that Siri Tachi could possibly be alive. He remained optimistically doubtful.

Coincidentally he had discovered Mara at an orphanage on the planet Azure at the time he was pursuing Raz Vena or Siri Tachi. Sidious sent Mara a few days ago to track down Raz Vena, she was due back any time.

Mara Jade was his weapon, his best chance of locating Raz Vena and finding out if Siri was indeed alive, if that was the case he would kill her and Obi-Wan who was his apprentice would forever be tied to the dark side, as Sidious had previously thought he was when he ordered Siri's execution, a secret kept from Obi-Wan to coax his fall to the dark side. Like that execution Mara was kept a secret from Obi-Wan as well, Mara knew him only as Darth Vader, Obi-Wan knew nothing of her.

The Emperor sat in his throne room atop the tallest spire of the pyramid like Imperial Palace. He received what he had been waiting for, the comm on the armrest of his chair chimed. He accepted the call, from a holoprprojector embedded in the floor before him an image of one of his guards sprang into existence.

"My Emperor," he said bowing hastily.

"What is it captain?" Sidious asked though he already knew the answer.

"Agent Jade has arrived sir, she requests an audience with you."

"Her request is acquiesced, allow her entry." The Emperor order smoothly. The guard bowed once more.

"Yes my emperor."

The image faded, Sidious watched as Mara Jade entered his throne room. The room itself was circular with nothing of particular interest in it save the red robe guards that protected the large entrance way. At the far end of the room was a large chair from which Sidious controlled the Empire, behind the chair was a large window with which he could gaze out of Coruscant. And in the center of the throne room was a small pod which could elevate like the podium in the senate arena which he had constructed in the palace. Circling the top of the round room was a balcony where members of the Imperial senate could come and sit with a sheet of laser proof transparasteel in front of them and listen to the Emperor's announcements.

Mara Jade walked past the inactivate podium and up to the Emperor's throne. She was draped in dark clothes because of her espionage needs, a compact blaster was holstered to her shoulder and she carried a single lightsaber on her belt. She bowed and flipped her wild crimson hair back.

"Hello milord." Mara said.

"Welcome home Mara," Sidious replied anxiously. "What have you discovered?"

"I do have intel on Raz Vena. I have two leads, my first source suggested she was hiding out on Tatooine, I took the advice and snapped his neck, and I also received credible information that she may have joined a smuggling operation run by a man named Talon Karrde. I killed the man who told me this also."

"I want these leads followed up on immediately."

"I'll go tomorrow if you want me to. I decided to go to Tatooine, there's a lot of smugglers and criminals on the planet, one's bound to know Karrde's location if Raz isn't on the planet, and if a woman like me is asking the questions the that mate- less mob of scoundrels then they'll probably talk and I'll rip their eyes out before they can so much as look at me, then I'll probably shoot them."

"Very good Mara, you will leave tomorrow." Sidious decreed, he then pulled out five chips from his robes, each marked for the amount of ten thousand imperial credits, the tossed them to Mara. "Your reward."

She smiled, contemplating what she would do with this money, she always wanted one of those assassin grade long shot blaster pistols….

"Thank you milord." She replied automatically. "I'll head out tomorrow."

"Very good, report to me once you have found something, Mara, there can be no mistakes."

XxX

It was like a bad dream, no, no it was like a nightmare discovering that the enemy you thought you had killed twice was still alive. Anakin Skywalker sprinted through the halls of the Rebel Alliance base on the moon Yavin IV; the rebels had built this base in one of the old pyramid like Massassi temples. Anakin's boots clacked on the stone floor as he ran into his own personal quarters. The moment his door opened into a living area, Anakin's ears were greeted with the sound of humming, clashing lightsabers. The first thing that went through his mind was one of his children was under attack. He sprinted to the left and into a small sparring room he had in his suite. There his son and daughter stood practicing their skills with lightsabers. Padmé sat on a bench at one end of the room watching.

Anakin's daughter Leia wielded an amethyst blade while his son Luke commanded a forest green weapon. The sabers clashed together and the duelists failed to notice their father enter, Anakin breathed a sigh of relief and tried to calm himself. Then Leia saw her father, Luke in front of her.

"Luke dad's home!" Leia said. Padmé turned her head and smiled at Anakin, but his angel's smile quickly faded as she noticed something was wrong, Leia failed to see it.

"Yeah right," Luke retorted. "Like I'm going to fall for that one again!"

"Hello son." Anakin said from behind Luke who turned his head, Leia ceased the opportunity to trip him flat on his back. He leapt up and scowled at her, both extinguished their blades.

"Luke, Leia, why don't you go practice in the jungle or something. Luke go see Wedge, I don't know! I have something very important to talk to your mother about."

Luke's and Leia's smiles faded and they complied with their fathers orders, leaving the quarter in a rush and talking in hushed voices. Anakin normally didn't act so… well… so like that."

The moment they were out of sight and earshot Padmé ran to Anakin.

"What's wrong?" She asked.

Anakin shook his head and fell down, lying on the mat floor. He brushed the hair off his face, some strands of it were beginning to gray. Padmé tucked her hair behind on ear and laid next to him, she didn't age well, though she was older than he she didn't have one single strand of gray anywhere in her hair. She turned on her side to face Anakin, he didn't move.

"Tell me what's wrong." She said.

"Obi-Wan is still alive." Anakin stated quickly. This was the second time Anakin thought Obi-Wan had died, only to have him jump back into his life again, the first time was Mustafar, the second time was when a Mon Calamari cruiser he had been on met face to face with Obi-Wan's star destroyer _Devastator_. The Mon Calamari cruiser held out and Obi-Wan's ship was destroyed, Anakin thought he had been dead, until the mission he had just returned from ended.

He had been sent along with a small fleet of Corellian Corvettes to sabotage a very vulnerable supply line of parts to the secret project the Emperor had been working on for the past five years. He was thwarted when a huge super star destroyer exited hyperspace, he sensed Obi-Wan was on it and he knew for sure when the ship sent out TIE fighters, Obi-Wan himself flew one… Anakin could not believe he was still alive.

"How do you know?" Padmé asked quietly. Now Anakin turned on his side to face his wife.

"I could sense him." Anakin replied gravely. "I thought he was dead when we destroyed his star destroyer but he survived, and he stopped us from completing our mission, Padmé. Vader is still alive."

_**Hope you liked the first chapter. By the way I don't own any characters from Star Wars, they belong to George Lucas and whoever else might have the rights to them, I am just using them to write a story and the only profit I intend to get from it is reviews, speaking of which you readers might want to click the little button that says review right about… now. **_


	2. Orders and Suggestions

Chapter 2: Orders and Suggestions

Wreckage floated amongst the stars of deep space, Obi-Wan stared out at it and the other cargo ships surrounding it. He stood on the bridge of the super star destroyer _Executor_, along wit his fleet he was trying to pinpoint where the rebels that had recently attacked the convoy before him had disappeared to, he was eager to find them. Obi-Wan sensed his appointed admiral approach him from behind, he turned, his dark robes swished and settled as he faced Admiral Piett.

Piett stared at the mask covering Obi-Wan's face for a moment, he had never seen his commander without that mask, though he heard stories that half of Obi-Wan's face was covered in a hideous burn, he also did not know the name Obi-Wan, the man he stood before was known as Darth Vader only.

"Milord," Piett began. "We have received a report from Grand Moff Tarkin himself on the Death Star."

"What is the situation Admiral?" Obi-Wan asked his voice filtered through the scrambler in the mouth piece of the mask, coming out in a deep tone. Moff Tarkin was overseeing the final construction of the Death Star, Obi-Wan was not fond of him he was a slimy, backstabbing sort of guy. Tarkin reciprocated Obi-Wan's feeling, he was not fond of the Dark Lord Vader either.

"Luckily sir this attack has not put construction behind." Piett stated, for a moment this sounded like good news. "However the construction is behind anyway."

Now it was bad news, it frustrated the Sith Lord to almost the point of anger, not quite, almost. If Obi-Wan was angry it was likely that at least one crew member would lose their life.

"I see," Obi-Wan said. "Well have you been successful in tracking the Rebels that escaped?"

"No Lord Vader, I apologize. The best we can say is that they made a series of randomized jumps, we tracked them first to Cato Neimoidia and then were able to determine they jumped to Ren-Var, we lost them from there sir, as best we can determine they may have either made another jump to Kashyyyk or Nul Hutta."

Obi-Wan balled up a gloved fist and resisted the urge to snap Piett's neck. The admiral looked weary of this and gulped. Without a word Obi-Wan pushed past him, Piett dared not ask where he was going.

XxX

Still boiling over with anger Obi-Wan stepped into the communication room of his ship, tossing an officer who happened to be using it in the deep pit under the massive holoprojector. Obi-Wan keyed in a frequency and stepped onto the metal pad in the camera's vision, he kneeled, the hiss of hydraulics in his mechanical leg was the only sound in the room.

Moments later an image of the Emperor flickered into existence.

"Rise my friend." Sidious commanded his voice raspy. Obi-Wan stood. "I sense your anger even from here on Coruscant my apprentice, what has caused it?"

"I have the report you requested." Obi-Wan stated, Sidious assumed Obi-Wan did not like what the report said, he doubted he would be greatly pleased with it either.

"Very well."

"The Rebels escaped after their attack." Obi-Wan said.

That was not unexpected, Sidious was not sure why this anger Obi-Wan so much.

"What of the construction on the Death Star?"

"It is not been put back because of the attempted sabotage, it is behind schedule however."

"What?!" Sidious snapped. "Perhaps Grand Moff Tarkin had not been fully motivated…. I shall go to the Death Star personally to inquire about the problem. Meanwhile continue searching for any clues to the rebels whereabouts."

"As you wish my master." Obi-Wan said, his anger still not sedated.

"This war must be ended Lord Vader. The Empire can not even locate the base of a band of criminals, that does not help improve its fear factor in the eyes of its people."

"I will find the Rebels sir, and the Jedi that are helping them. When I do I will kill them all."

XxX

When Anakin woke up he stepped into a fresher and ran a shower, the water was colder than Hoth when it hit his bare skin, he turned up the intensity of the oncoming stream and just stood there for a while, the freezing cold water kept him wide awake, alert, and obviously cold while he pondered the events of yesterday. Obi-Wan was alive, he had escaped death again… it gave Anakin so much pain to know that his one time friend was now a Sith Lord, and he felt sick whenever he thought he killed him, only to feel even worse when he found out that Obi-Wan was still alive and he had to kill him all over again, this had happened twice. Anakin killed the water and stepped out of the shower, he knew he should not have, the soap lay untouched on a side part of the shower.

He stepped up to the mirror and looked at himself, the scar on his eye was blood red and the rest of his face was a gray ivory color, cold water he supposed would do that to a person. She wrapped a towel around himself and stepped into his room, Padmé slept silently, not wanting to wake her up he crept quietly to the closet to get changed, despite the fact he was still soaked and was under the potential risk of hypothermia. When he reached the closet he dried himself off with the towel as best as he could and dropped it on the floor, he pulled a pair of dark pants on, a shirt, and then his black leather vest, after that he fitted himself with all his Jedi trappings and stepped out of the walk-in closet, now fully clothed.

Once more he tried to not wake Padmé up, nevertheless her eye fluttered open and she sat up.

"Anakin," She said tiredly. "Where are you going?"

"To meditate," Anakin admitted, he didn't know what else to do.

Padmé yawned loudly. "Why? Shouldn't you go see Master Yoda and Master Windu? Maybe they can help you through dealing with Obi-Wan."

Anakin sighed, he had considered that. "Maybe…."

"Don't shut the Jedi out Anakin." Padmé said, her sleepiness faded and her face became hard and serious. "Don't ever shut them out, Obi-Wan did and look what happened…."

"I don't… right now I don't want to think anymore about Obi-Wan." Anakin said, it was too painful. "Maybe I'll go see Yoda and Mace later. Right now I just need to… meditate."

"Alright." Padmé said as her husband left the room. She sighed feeling sympathetic for her husband, he had always felt pain about Obi-Wan before, but recent events had magnified his suffering. She hoped he would get through it.

_**Just so none of you ask this is not leading Anakin down the dark path or anything.**_


	3. On the Trail

_**We'll probably seeing a little less than a lot of Mara. I think I'm going to also do a subplot or two, one involving Mara and Luke.**_

Chapter 3: On the Trail

Mos Eisley was the last place Mara wanted to be. She despised desert climates, they were hot and dry, plus dehydration was a real danger and carrying water could just slow her down, on top of that it was all sand, nothing but sand, no trees, no grass, no water, just stones and sand. She hated it here. Her ship touched down in one of the circular landing areas in the middle of Mos Eisley. When she exited the ship she immediately came face to face with a docking hand, draped in bright white robes that stung her eyes from the reflection of the sun and caused her to see black spots every time she blinked.

"Can I help you?" the docking hand asked. His skin was dark from life under the two Tatooinian suns, his coarse hair fell to shoulder length and was tied back in cornrows, a badge bearing a strange insignia was pinned on the right part of his chest , a blaster was holstered to his side and he had the distinct look of a security guard about him because of his muscular form.

He examined Mara and noticed her weapons as well as her sandy colored suit.

"You won't want to be in that here." he said. "This is the desert, you'll be quite hot."

"Whatever," Mara said rudely. "I came here for information."

"I will help you if I can."

"I'm looking for a ship called _Raxor's Whip_, has it ever docked around these parts?"

"I can't disclose any information about other customers."

Mara rolled her eyes and was about to retort when she spotted a door in the side of the walls that surround her, the exit was near it, on the door a bold red sign read AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY! Just her kind of place.

"That's okay," Mara said nicely. "I have other sources."

The man gave her an odd look.

"You can scram now." She snapped.

The docking hand's eyes rolled like hers had when they first met, with a swish of tight, hanging corn rows the man faded away through the exit door. Mara assumed his shift was over or something. She then strode as inconspicuously as possible to the authorized personnel only door, casually walking by two security guards who were deep in conversation. She reached the door, it didn't budge when she attempted to open it, she hissed a curse and glanced around the docking arena. It seemed only the two security guards were around, pulling out her blaster pistol she shot both in the head, her shots were silenced by the special barrel as they flew out and dug into her enemies. They fell on their backs; she turned on her heel and pulled out a magnetic lock pick. She pressed it where she suspected the lock was on the door and turned it hard to the right.

There was a sharp click followed by the door opening up to reveal a stairwell. She stepped in as it hissed shut behind her, keeping her back to the wall and her blaster out she skulked up the stairs, turning the corner with her weapons pointed out she found herself in a narrow deserted hall as featureless as the desert sand. She ran quietly down it as well as another and soon found herself in a control/information room. Terminals lined one wall, the rest were bare and there were no guards to speak off.

Odd.

Nevertheless Mara ran up to the controls and found the data terminal, she typed in a search for Raz Vena. She waited several moments but the search yielded no results. She growled in frustration and then did another search for _Raxor's Whip_, Raz's ship. This time she tasted the fruit of her patience and sneakiness, the search yielded one result. A few days ago _Raxor's Whip _landed in the exact docking area Mara had just vacated, it was apparently registered to a woman named Zara Velia, which Mara assumed was an alias for Raz Vena, Zara had stated her business as coming to collect some sort of shipment for Talon Karrde, so she had come to Tatooine and she was also working with Karrde, both of Mara's leads had been correct, what were the odds of that?

Mara also noticed that the records said Raz's ship departed late last night, so she had been here for a few days, a nice long while to enjoy a couple drinks at the local cantina, that was the best place to start. Mara exited out of the search results and turned the face the barrel of a blaster aimed at her chest, an aggravated looking man was holding it.

"What do you think you're doing here?!" he barked.

"I was checking the security measures this place takes; let me tell you they suck." Mara retorted.

"Echuta!" The man cursed in Huttese. "That's it you're coming with me."

"The hell I am!"

Mara raised her leg and kicked the man in the groin, his hand immediately flew to the point of impact and he lost hold of the blaster, Mara caught it in mid air as the guy let out a grunt and fell to his knees. He looked up as the butt of the blaster crashed into his face. He fell to the floor, unconscious. Mara shook her head and dropped the blaster, then she ran out of there, headed for the local cantina, not only did she need to find Raz but now she needed a drink.

XxX

The cantina was filled with bad, and somewhat cheesy music, a band of aliens with incredibly large heads were blowing through some sort of piping that must have been instruments, the place was filled to the brim with all different types of species, shadowy looking humans flaunting abused female Twi'lek slaves around, to Rodians speaking with other Rodians about their favorite business: bounty hunting, and of course the occasional Toydarinan, and even a jawa here and there. Mara stepped into the cantina, next to the bar where three people sat. One was a rich and dirty looking man who sat next to a disgracefully clad Twi'lek with purple skin, he had his arm around her, forcing her to lean on his grimy shoulder while he gulped down blue liquid from several shot glasses. The other one at the bar was a shady looking guy with long brown hair that went just past his ears, he was clad in white clothing and looked somewhat important, plus he was as inconspicuous as the horny slave owners were in flaunting his credits around, buying the most expensive drinks and food on the menu, throwing them down his esophagus and then asking for more. Mara deduced he was a promising candidate.

She walked up near him and dropped down in the vacant bench to his left. He turned his head slightly, examining her features, perfect. She pretended not to notice and waved a hand at the bar tender, the man noticed the pistol holstered on her shoulder and smiled mischievously. Had Mara not been setting a small plan into action she would have rolled her eyes and backhanded him. The bar tender was currently serving the dirty looking man holding the purple Twi'lek in his grasp. He gestured for her to wait a moment. She rolled her eyes at this and turned to face the man next to her.

She got a better look at him now, his eyes matched his brown hair and he was slightly meaty, though he would probably excuse it as being large boned, his clothes did indeed look somewhat expensive and he wore a badge that bore the same insignia the docking hand she had met had on his badge. Mara suspected she may be looking right at the administration of the docking facility. He smiled at her, she smiled back, at least this guy wasn't as bad looking as the scum sucking hobos she usually had to try this technique with.

"Can I buy you that drink?" he asked.

"If you insist." Mara replied, flipping her hair behind her shoulders. The bar tender walked up to them and Mara made her order, the man next to her paid for it.

"Thanks," Mara replied taking a sip of the blue concoction. After the guy made his remark they got into some small talk and ordered more drinks, Mara made sure hers was low in alcohols content and slipped the bar tender fifty credits to make the man's more concentrated. After a couple of rounds she broke the small talk.

"So, are you the administrator of the docking bays around here."

"Yup," the man replied. "I am."

"Maybe you can help me then," Mara said in a mischievous tone.

"Maybe I can…" he agreed. "But I need to know you're name first, you haven't told me yet."

Mara inwardly scowled, realizing the guy wasn't as barking mad drunk as she would have liked, maybe with the aid of the Force this idea would still work.

"Mara." Mara said.

"Rorxan." The guy said.

"Well Rorxan, lets get back to my problem."

"Yeah, tell me what's wrong."

"I'm looking for information."

Rorxan quirked his eyebrows.

"I need information on a woman named Zara Velia, she might go as Raz Vena, or a man named Talon Karrde."

"I don't know anything about them." Rorxan replied, trying to shrug it off. Mara could tell he was obviously a horrible liar.

"That's alright," she said. "Hey, why don't you come back to my motel room."

Rorxan immediately agreed and she led him out of the cantina, she had another idea.

XxX

Rorxan didn't seem to care as Mara led him out of the cantina and then immediately in the back alley behind it, away from the prying public eyes. A dilemma was now evident, interrogate him right here or take him back to her ship…. She didn't think this was such a good place, especially since she had no tools of interrogation to rely on. Rorxan seemed slightly confused when she shoved him to the ground, he flipped his long brown hair out of his face and looked up at her quizzically, she responded by smashing the tips of her index and middle finger into the side of his neck, smashing the vessel down that carried blood to his brain, from the temporary lack of fuel for his mind Rorxan fainted, he would be out for some time hopefully. Now what?

Mara looked to her right and spotted a dumpster, from it she pulled a large piece of rough fabric which she assumed was a carpet that had been discarded. She spread it across the ground and dropped Rorxan neatly to one side of it, then she rolled him up tightly, now she could disguise him as just a carpet, slinging the roll over her shoulder she walked out onto the street, trying not to grunt because of Rorxan's weight. Nobody paid her much attention, she stopped the first droid pulled cab she saw.

"How may I be of service sir?" the droid asked, Mara wanted to rip its head off, these droids were horribly programmed.

"Can you take me to docking bay V 47?"

"Of course sir, it will be my pleasure to take you to docking bay D 47." The droid stated incorrectly. Mara grunted in exasperation, and for the fact that Rorxan was getting heavier by the second.

"No! Idiot, I said docking bay V 47!" Mara snapped.

"I am sorry sir. It will be my pleasure to take you to docking bay V 47."

"Good, now how much is this gonna cost me?"

"V 47 is approximately seven miles away. That will be…"

"V 47 is half a mile away! I walked here myself!"

"Oh, it seems I have computed wrong!"

Mara rolled her eyes and groaned in irritation.

"I am terribly sorry sir," the droid apologized. "docking bay V 48 is half a mile away, that will be twelve hundred imperial credits."

"Twelve hundred! That is ridiculous, I'll only pay twelve, that's it! Take it or leave it dumb ass, but either way I'm going to use this cab to get to V 47!"

"Oh I am terribly sorry sir! It will only be twelve credits."

"Fine!" Mara hissed reaching into her pocket and pulling out six credits, maybe the droid was malfunctioning enough…. She handed them to it.

"That will be six more credits sir."

Mara considered pulling her blaster out instead. But she handed the droid six credits and boarded the cab with her _carpet_, finally they set off at a notoriously slow pace to docking bay V 47.

XxX

Finally she entered the docking area to see the beautiful sight of her ship, Rorxan still wrapped in the carpet was slung over her shoulder. Her eyes switched from her ship to view the not-so-nice sight of the dark guard with the shoulder length ebony cornrows. Mara dropped the _carpet_ to the ground and the hand raised an eyebrow when it grunted.

"Can I help you?" Mara snapped rudely.

"As a matter of fact you can." the hand replied. "We found a security guard dead just a while after you landed here, we would like to know what you know about it."

Busted. Mara thought fast a drew the blaster, the docking hand drew his own, suddenly she found a pistol aimed at her head and the hand found a pistol aimed at a place he would not want shot. It was a stalemate, or was it?

Mara's foot flew up and kicked the blaster out of the man's hand, it flew into the air and to the right where it landed in the sand. The hand's eyes shot from his weapon to her, and then with a grunt Mara delivered a roundhouse kick to his face, she turned just in time to see five security guards running towards her. She chuckled and it a blur of motion her dead lightsaber unclipped itself from its place on her belt and ignited. It flew through the air and decapitated the five men before deactivating and clipping itself back onto her belt, letting go of the Force Mara grunted and picked up Rorxan, she ran up the boarding rail of her ship and to the cockpit dropping Rorxan on the floor. Quickly she closed the boarding ramp and lifted up, finally she was off Tatooine, the horrible planet.


	4. Interrogation

_**Mild to moderate torture scene here, just a warning, it would defiantly, indisputably fall under the category of PG-13 to the max, the first way I had it which was quite artistic and descriptive but that sort of… made even me wonder whether I should use it so I cut it down and used less artistic words and was a little more vague, I hope. Also the torture scene originated from an episode of Alias in the first season, I thought it was excellent, so I borrowed it.**_

Chapter 4: Interrogation

Once Mara was safely in hyperspace she stood up and unrolled the carpet, then chained Rorxan's body to the chair, she carefully searched him for weapons and then she poured the contents of her canteen over his head, the water spilled over his face for a moment, matting his long brown hair back, and onto his head, finally he gasped and seemingly sprang to life.

"I can make this real simple for you, where is Zara Velia?" Mara asked. "Either tell me or I will _make _you, and trust me, you ain't ready for that. Now you're going to tell me, now."

"The hell I am, why would I tell you something you want to know?!" Rorxan spat.

"Fine." Mara hissed, she backhanded him and he fell unconscious, she smiled to herself, she had a good sized battery, and a couple of breaker cables in storage, and she had a small bath tub….

XxX

Rorxan awoke mostly submerged in water that felt like fire on his bare skin, he found himself chained inside a bath tub with draped only in white prisoner shorts Mara had put on him, a breaker cable was clamped painfully to his fight hand, and another to his foot, one was attacked to a battery on the floor next to the tub, the other was in Mara's right hand. She stood over him menacingly.

"Let's continue our talk while you bathe." Mara said smoothly and sarcastically.

"Go to hell!"

"When I knocked you out before I cut off the flow of blood to your brain for a few moments, I can also cut off the flow of blood to your heart, permanently. I hope it doesn't come to that."

"I'm not telling you anything!" Rorxan cried, struggling against his restraints.

"What's your real name?"

"What?!"

"Wrong answer."

Mara attached the breaker cable in her hand to the remaining part of the battery. Rorxan felt electricity pulsing throughout his entire body, he convulsed violently in the tub, sending scalding out water splashing out. Mara shook her head and unclipped one cable. Rorxan gasped loudly in relief.

"What is your real name?" Mara asked again

"Go…" Rorxan trailed off.

"Don't give me that! I did a bit of research on you."

"Fine!" Rorxan winced as he yelled. "My real name it Trez, that's all you get."

"That's not all I want, who is Zara Velia and where did she go?"

"I will not tell you."

Mara hissed like a she demon and attached the cable to the battery again, letting it remain on there for a little longer this time. Trez, aka Rorxan actually cried out in agony this time, Mara unclipped the cable.

"Why are you making this so hard on yourself?" Mara asked. "Just tell me where Zara Velia is."

"No!"

Mara shook her head and unclipped the cable from Trez's submerged foot, and then clipped it to a place where she suspected he would not want it. He grunted loudly as she let go of it and moved to clip the other end to the battery.

"WAIT!" he bellowed. "I'll tell you!"

"Good, we're getting somewhere."

"Zara Velia is an alias for Raz Vena, she works for a smuggler named Talon Karrde and so do I! Now please get these off of me!!"

"Where is Karrde's base?"

"Never!"

Mara reached down once more to clip the cable to the battery. Just as she was just about to latch it on Trez cried out in protest.

"Wait! NO! His base is on Myrkr!" Mara smiled sadistically and basked in her triumph. She unclipped the breaker cable from his hands, and then the other one and he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Get me out of this water." He pleaded, it was blazing hot. Mara rolled her eyes and unclipped his restraints. She pulled him out of the tub by his soaking brown hair and led him out of the bathroom. He grunted in pain with every step as Mara led him into the back room of her ship. As he entered it he immediately felt the change in temperature and his skin began to burn as the cold air hit the hot water all over him. Mara tossed him in a small metal cage in the bare room and locked it, she kept her prisoners here and she decided Trez could be useful. He immediately drew his legs up to his chest and shivered violently.

"Grow up!" Mara snapped. "It's only five degrees colder in here!"

"C-can I have my p-pants b-back?" Trez pleaded. Mara looked at his soaking wet shorts and pursed her lips, he would dry long before they did and he would remain cold for hours.

"No," she replied. "If only you were a little more cooperative… oh well."

She stalked off and exited the room, the door slammed shut behind her.

XxX

"Very well done Mara." Sidious's hologram rasped. "Go to Myrkr and find this Talon Karrde, bring me Raz Vena, alive, but I will except her even if she is not completely unscathed."

"Very well my Emperor. What of Trez?"

"Keep him until you find Vena, he could be useful if he knows where Karrde's base is and the best way to infiltrate it. He could save you the trouble of reconnaissance."

"Oh yeah, the best part." Mara said sarcastically. "Then what?"

"Kill him, stretch your imagination Mara, I don't particularly care, drop him off on Hoth in shorts, soaking wet, it matters not, just dispose of him."

"That sounds like a good idea, I'll definitely consider that."

"Just bring me Raz Vena." Sidious snapped irritation was becoming evident in his voice, like a Tatooinian rattle snake ready to strike.

"Very well milord. Jade out," Mara said. She abruptly ended the communication and walked back into the cockpit to set a course for Myrkr.

XxX

Yoda and Mace Windu had dreams to reconstruct the Jedi Order that could possibly come true. Anakin, fresh from walked through the jungle, came through the edge of it and into a large field where a great pyramid stood. Yoda and Mace Windu sat on the steps meditating, this was to be the new Jedi temple. Anakin ran up to the large structure built by the extinct Massassi race and up to the step where the two Jedi masters sat. Both of their eyes snapped open at the same time.

"Something wrong, is there?" Yoda asked sensing it.

"Masters," Anakin said. "Obi-Wan is still alive."

Mace and Yoda exchanged troubled looks.

"Then we have failed again to destroy the Sith," Mace stated solemnly. "We must continue ahead with our plans. The Rebel Alliance is growing in strength Anakin, you've seen this, and soon we will be strong enough to launch our campaign. Do not let this distract you Anakin. Obi-Wan is no longer your friend…"

"Stop with the lectures please master, I know Obi-Wan is Darth Vader. It's just that I thought I killed him once, I hated it, he was like my brother, my friend, and then I find that I have to go through the same thing again and this time it's worse, and now I have to again…."

"Strong you must stay Anakin, the chosen one you are, your destiny it is to kill Obi-Wan and Sidious, destroy the Sith we must, and bring about their fall."

"I know master, and when the time comes I will kill Obi-Wan… again."

_**This last scene was a pain, sorry it was so short but I just didn't want to write it for some reason. Isn't it wonderful, you find out your former best friend is still alive after you thought you killed him and then a few old wise people console you and say, oh by the way you have to go kill him for real this time. Review please.**_


	5. Traitor

_**The author of this fic hopes that the small twist the in this chapter will go over well, meaning I hope this twist works because I've not seen it done before the way I am going to do it, I guess the character who is a traitor will be a little OOC just so you know, but I'm not sure anyone really likes him anyway, enough rambling, I will just let you read. Sorry for a bit of a delay in updating.**_

Chapter 5: Traitor

A long procession of officer's commanders, and high ranking storm troopers stood at attention and in formation in the small hanger bag a Lambda class shuttle was docking in, Grand Moff Tarkin himself stood right in front of where the ramp would lower. He was a bit confused as to why the Emperor would want to come to see the progress of the Death Star, and he was slightly nervous because the construction was indeed falling behind, but surely the Emperor would not waste his time with something like that, he might mention it but why he was here was indisputably of the strictest importance.

He watched as a cloaked figure treaded the ramp silently, flanked by two guards in red robes. Tarkin, and the small group of generals and admirals behind him kneeled in respect.

"Rise," the Emperor rasped.

Tarkin and the others did so, and the moment he was at his full height Tarkin felt a crushing force with long talons grasp his neck. Using one hand the Emperor strangled Tarkin. Everyone looked in astonishment, storm troopers fiddled with their blaster rifles, Tarkin was their commanding officer but the man killing him was the Emperor….

"Why are you behind schedule Tarkin?!" The Emperor hissed. "I put you in charge of this operation because I trusted you would get it done quickly! Apparently not!"

Sidious released his grip and Tarkin fell to the floor, gulping in air. Quickly he stood up, trying to regain composure in front of his men.

"It is not my fault!" Tarkin finally blurted out between huge gulps of air. He sounded like a child, making excuses, afraid of the punishment that surely awaited him.

"Everything is your fault!" Sidious snapped. "You are the highest ranking official here, you command everything, if a riot breaks out, if something goes amiss, if troops become less cooperative and lose morale all of it is entirely your fault!"

"I need more men!" Tarkin choked out.

"No you don't! The men you have rival that of a construction army capable of building a quarter of the old senate district up from scratch in less than six months. I estimated the Death star would be completed, or further along in the process than this a month ago! The other shell is not even fully plated, there is a completed section of this station exposed to sabotage!"

"I'm sorry my emperor!" Tarkin cried. "There are not enough men here to build."

"Perhaps they are just not properly motivated…" The Emperor trailed off. "You!"

The Emperor pointed to a nervous looking general.

"Escort me to my throne room. I trust _that _is completed."

Tarkin's breaths became less frequent and more shallow not. He turned to admiral Motti as the Emperor exited the landing bay and the troops and other generals began to follow.

"He has presented us with a perfect opportunity."

"Yes sir," Motti replied. "But how are we going to kill him? He is very powerful."

"Even those who are seemingly invincible are prone to one thing admiral, surprise attack. Soon the Empire will be mine and you will be rewarded as promised."

XxX

Trez opened his eyes and came back into the world with a horrendous pounding in his head and the cold nipping at his exposed, bare skin. The cage door squeaked open and Mara pulled him out. He fell onto the floor and looked up at her.

"We're orbiting over Myrkr. I need your help."

"I am freezing!" Trez snapped.

Mara took him by his long brown hair and pulled him out of the small prison room and into her cockpit where it was considerably warmer; she sat him roughly down on one of the chairs and tossed a sheet on him. He looked out the view port to see the planet Myrkr beneath them, he was going to be dead when Karrde found out about this.

"Where are the coordinates to the base?" Mara asked sharply. "And if you lie I'll just throw you back in that little, cold room soaking wet again."

Trez decided he'd rather not go into that freezing little room again. He relayed the coordinates to Mara who brought the ship down into the atmosphere of the planet. She stayed at a very high altitude, so as to stay away from any radar that might detect her from certain cities. She landed just a few miles away from where the coordinates pointed, making sure to switch a cloaking device on so any radar coverage would not detect her.

Her small ship was surrounded by somewhat of a dense forest, she had landed in a small clearing atop of beautiful green hill. She stood up and turned to Trez.

"Is there anything I should know about?" Mara said. "Any surprises I might come across?"

"No," Trez replied simply. "Of course this…"

"What the hell?!" Mara cut him off. She felt as though she had been sapped of all of her senses, as though she had gone blind and deaf at the same time. The world seemed dim to her now, it took her a moment to realize she could no longer sense anything… she had lost her connection to the force! She turned to Trez.

"What the hell is this?! What happened to me?!" She cried, wrapping her hands around his throat. "You tell me what's wrong with this place now!"

"Ysalamiri!" Trez choked out.

"What?"

"Ysalamiri! It's the ysalamiri!"

Mara let his neck go and he immediately took in as much air as possible.

"What are the ysalamiri?" Mara asked.

"Bugs," Trez rasped. "They're like caterpillars, that's what the look like except bigger and gray… they create this bubble around themselves which the Force cant be used in… you can use the Force right? Well that's what happened, Myrkr is home to millions of ysalamiri."

Mara thought for a moment. She was on a planet which she had never been to before, going after a woman her master asked her to and she was about to sneak into a potentially hostile smuggler camp. Without the Force she had to merely rely on her espionage training, she couldn't help but feel this was a bad idea… still she had been in worse situations. Her mind was made up, she looked back at her prisoner.

"Any other surprises?"

"No." Trez lied, there were others indeed, but she could no longer sense his deceit….

"Good," Mara replied, then without the slightest bit of warning Mara pulled out her blaster pistol. The last thing Trez heard before his life ended was the bang of a shot being fired off. Mara watched as his limp body fell to the floor, a smoking, charred hole in his head. His eye's stared blankly into nothingness, for a fraction of a second Mara stared into them. She then snapped her blaster back into its holster and slung Trez over her shoulder; she carried him out of the ship and tossed him into some bushes. Brushing her hands together, as though she had just let go of something filthy she turned and treaded back up the ramp of her ship to change into some more suitable clothing.

She exited the ship again clad in a camouflage suit, armed to the teeth. She strode into the woods, being careful to stay low and alert, not stepping on any twigs. The place was quite thick with underbrush, prickly green plants littered the forest floor, tall trees blocked daylight from shining upon her.

Using a compass she headed northeast, to the smuggler base and to Raz Vena. She noticed that the further she made her way into the forest, the less dense it became, soon she found herself in large area with nothing but the trunks of trees, very little underbrush. She continued walking and found that she was only a quarter mile away from the camp. She stopped and inserted the compass in a pouch on her belt, before she could take another step she heard a twig snap. Suddenly everything looked like a possible hiding place for an enemy, she drew her blaster and whirled around in time to see a dog like animal with a sharp tail charging at her, it had a vicious snarl on its face, revealing sharp white teeth.

She squeezed one shot off that dug itself into the forest floor; she dodged to the left as the creature lunged for her, it managed to scratch her on the arm, though it did not dig in to far. Mara turned as it hit the ground and drew her lightsaber. It came at her again, she sidestepped and neatly cut its head off. She watched as it's body fell to one side limply, and its head with open, blank eyes fell next to hit. She breathed a sigh of relief and then deactivated her saber, she clipped it to her belt and bent down to examine the creature. She had no idea what it was, it reminded her somewhat of a kath hound from Dantooine, but this thing was much more aggressive and muscular, plus it was a lot stealthier, she deduced that it only broke that twig by accident.

She looked at the three bloody scratch marks on her arm and scowled, that thing should never have been able to lay a paw on her. She turned and continued on, keeping more on the alert. After a bit of walking she found herself in dense brush once more, at the edge of a camp in the middle of a small clearing. The place looked like a permanent settlement, buildings dotted the clearing and she noticed several ships further back in a wooded area, cleared of underbrush on the other side of the camp. Men in hodge-podge armor walked around the grounds, carrying varying types of blaster with them. Mara fell silently to the ground and made her way to the edge of the brush, she froze in place as her elbow came down and snapped a twig, much like that animal had.

She remained frozen with anticipation for a moment, not daring to move, finally when she was satisfied she started to move forward.

"Stop there trespasser!" a gruff voice commanded. She looked up to see five blasters aimed at her, five men held them, looking over the bush she was behind.

"Stand up." The same man ordered. "No sudden movements!"

Mara complied. raising herself up off the ground slowly, leaves and dirt fell off the front side of her camouflage suit. Finally she raised herself to her full height and slowly raised her hands into the air.

"Don't move." The same smuggler commanded as his comrades grasped her by the arms and pulled her out of the forest, quickly they disarmed her of all weapons, including her lightsaber and the vibro knife sheathed to her ankle, under her boots. The made sure to _thoroughly _check every inch of her body for any sort of weaponry, once satisfied they bound her hands behind her back and began leading her into the camp.

They took her quite roughly to the biggest building in the clearing which looked like a makeshift dorm facility. She watched as doors pulled back, the lead into a lobby which had a tree growing inside of it, up through the roof. Several insects slowly crawled around it, they looked exactly how the late Trez had described them, Mara assumed they were ysalamiri but her eyes quickly went from the beings on the tree, to the beings sitting in front of it. The man she took to be Talon Karrde, and the woman sitting next to him she was sure was Raz Vena.

She looked the same as the holovid Mara had seen of her. She had long, flowing brunette hair, dark brown eyes and she was draped in tattered black and red robes which hung over a black jumpsuit. On her boots vibro sais were sheathed, she carried a single lightsaber on her belt as well as her seven chakras. She looked up with interest as Mara entered.

"I see we have a guest," Talon Karrde remarked.

"We found her trying to sneak into our camp sir." The gruff sounding smuggler reported.

"I see," Talon said to himself. "Tell me your name and who you work for."

Mara remained silent.

"Perhaps I should introduce myself first. My name is Talon Karrde, I run the smuggling operations around here, this is Raz Vena, she's been working with me for a while."

Mara shot a glance at Raz, and then locked eyes with Karrde, her gaze as good as told him he was losing this game.

"I'll deal with you later." Karrde stated. "Make sure she's thoroughly searched and then toss her in an equipment shed, but check all the crates, I don't want her using anything to escape."

"Very well boss." The smuggler said, and together the band of the five led her out of the dorm building and to a small metal shed.

XxX

"I hope you have good news Tarkin." Sidious said, he sensed the Grand Moff approach his throne from behind, he sat gazing into space.

"Oh yes emperor," Tarkin said as Sidious turned to face him. "Very good news."

"I take it then that your men are stepping it up and finishing the project."

"Not quite, I meant good news for me." Tarkin said. He suddenly pulled a blaster and squeezed off two shots, flying right at the Emperor's chest. Sidious raised one clawed hand and blocked the bolt's path, one hit, and then the other, both bounced back at Tarkin, flying past him and smashing into the wall.

The Emperor drew himself to his full height and sent a small dose of blue white lightning at Tarkin's hand. The moff dropped the blaster and clasped his hand, he cried out in pain and fell to his knees as two of Sidious's guards jabbed their force pikes into Tarkin's back, sending electricity surging throughout his body.

"Enough!" Sidious snapped. The guards immediately pulled away. Tarkin's gaze rose to meet the Sith Lord's sickeningly yellow, red brimmed eyes. The Emperor extended his hands. Tarkin winced even before the white hot lightning hit him. He convulsed in agony as it finally impacted and did not stop.

"Traitor," Sidious stated quietly. He gritted his teeth. "I sensed your intentions when I arrived. For all your subtleties you have not wisdom or intelligence! The Empire is mine; it will never be taken from me, especially by a pathetic little man like you! Now Grand Moff Tarkin, you will pay the ultimate price!"

To Tarkin's surprise the lightning ceased to exist. He winced as he looked up at the Emperor in confusion. For one moment their eye's locked, but then Sidious's gaze flicked up to his guards.

"Take him away."

The Emperor watched as his guard led Tarkin away to a high security cell. He would put the entire block on lockdown, he didn't know who was loyal to Tarkin over him. He would soon flush them out, quickly he pulled out his comm and keyed in a frequency.

_**Hope you liked the chapter.**_


	6. Attempted Escape

Chapter 6: Attempted Escape

The small transparent image of Obi-Wan bowed to his master as it appeared on Lord Sidious's small comm unit.

"Rise Lord Vader." Sidious commanded. Obi-Wan stood.

"What is thy bidding, my master?" Obi-Wan asked. "I am still searching for any leads on the Rebel Alliance."

"Forget about the Alliance for a moment. Grand Moff Tarkin has just betrayed me, he attempted assassination. Tarkin is strong willed, I would wonder how long it would take me to break him… however I do not want that wait to be long, report to the Death Star, he will not easily stand up to two Sith Lords, my apprentice."

"As you wish Master. I will order Admiral Piett to plot a course immediately."

"Good, I will await your arrival."

XxX

There was nothing but locked, metal crates, anywhere in the darn storage shed, which could pass as a small warehouse, a very small warehouse. Mara stood in the center of it with her hands on her hips, taking in her surroundings, no windows, no possible weapons, just incredibly heavy crates and a locked door that required a keycard to open. Those smugglers had searched her _thoroughly_ indeed, they had taken from her every tool she possessed except one, but it might be a bit unreliable.

Nevertheless Mara bent down and pulled up her right pant leg, she grabbed a chunk of synthetic skin on her leg and ripped it off, tossing it behind some crates, on her leg a small electronic device was stuck with a flesh-friendly glue, the pulled it off easily and held it in her hand. This was her only chance, it was a good thing the smugglers missed this. She pressed the red button on it and a small red light began to blink, hopefully the Emperor would get the signal from this beacon, she had never used it before and now was as good a time, and as horrible of a time as any to start, she was cut off from the Force, it was her only option. Now all she could do was wait like a puppy in a kennel for her master to come release her. She tucked the beacon down her shirt and sat down, maybe to meditate.

Her eyes closed for a second until the lock on the door disengaged and Raz Vena entered Mara's prison. Mara opened her eyes and stood up in a flash.

"I suppose you're here to interrogate me?" Mara asked.

"Not exactly," Raz replied. "I just wanted to talk with you."

"Not interested sweetie, now get out." Mara snapped. She wanted as little to do with Raz as possible, she wanted to remain inconspicuous right now in her eyes, otherwise she feared Raz would leave, she had evaded capture all these years, part of that had to do with paranoia.

"Excuse me _sweetie_, you're the unarmed helpless prisoner, the beast, I'm the armed to the teeth bad ass captor with a whip, I suggest you settle down and answer the questions I have for you."

"Well one day the beast will get tired of constant whippings and attack the so called armed to the teeth bad ass captor, so you just go ahead and ask those questions, maybe you'll get some answers." Mara retorted, her temper rising to almost the boiling point.

"Unless you're highly unintelligent you'll notice there's something odd about this planet. I can tell just by the look of you you're a Force user, you'll notice your power has been sapped, well join the club, so has mine. I could read you right when I saw you even without the power of the Force; you were surprised to see me here, right up as Talon Karrde's second in command. Tell me why that is."

"No."

"Well it doesn't matter anyway, because you know what I think?"

"No, you said yourself our Force powers have been sapped."

"I think the Emperor sent you."

"I…"

"He did, didn't he?"

"You…"

"Stop stuttering, you've as good as answered my question. I guess you're not so up to par in simple interrogation tactics."

"Well… I don't care what other people say, you're not as stupid as I thought you were."

"Nope, in fact I'm smart enough to know that you've probably somehow alerted the Emperor that you've been caught, thus I'm not gonna be staying around here any longer."

Raz turned on her heel to exit. Mara's eyes widened slightly, she couldn't let her escape! Mara watched as Raz opened the door and exited, she couldn't let her leave the planet. Thinking fast Mara ripped off her belt and tossed it in front of the closing door's path, it successfully stopped it, centimeters away from fully closing. Mara ran up and looked through the tiny sliver of a gap between the door and the wall, luckily the door was on the right side of the storage shed, facing away from the rest of the camp, no one would notice it wasn't closed unless Raz did.

Thankfully the woman just kept on walking toward the woods. Mara smiled at her own cunning and forced the door open. She put her belt back on and dived behind the warehouse as a group of four smugglers walked by. Peeking around the corner she saw they were gone, her attention turned back to Raz who had just entered the forest. Sprinting as fast and as quietly as she could Mara propelled herself to where Raz had entered, it was a trail, leading through the dense underbrush to where Mara saw the ships. Crouching low Mara tailed her enemy.

Raz walked silently on the trail, never looking back, she entered a small clearing full of ships and walked to a peculiar looking one, the likes of which Mara had seen only as a holovid in Raz's file. This was her elusive ship, of course it would be here though, if she was.

Raz strode up to it quietly, and turned to meet the smuggler guarding all the craft. They conversed quietly, Mara couldn't make out every word but it didn't matter to her. She pulled out a tracking device that she had hidden in a secret pocket in her suit, something the smugglers also failed to find. She activated it and tossed it at the hull of Raz's ship. She smiled as it successfully latched on, neither Raz nor the smuggler noticed a thing.

Then a thought came across her mind, "now what?" What was she going to do—

Something flew at her from behind a tree; it was another one of those freak kath hound things. It lunged at Mara's crouched form, claws out. She ducked in the knick of time as it flew over her; however this had attracted Raz's and the smugglers attention. The smuggler pulled a blaster pistol and squeezed a shot off at the thing, it missed horribly. The beast turned to look at the man and pulled back its lips in an angry snarl, Raz drew her vibro sais as the creature began to charge. Shot's erupted from the smuggler's blaster pistol but all missed. Mara watched, frozen in place as Raz tossed a vibro sai casually at the creature, it stabbed right through it's head, erupting with a spurt of blood form the other side. Her eye's then snapped to Mara.

Mara stood and turned around but not before a vibro sai was thrown at her, it flew and went right through a pouch into her belt, and then dug itself into the nearest tree, pinning Mara to it. Raz bent down and pulled her weapon from the creature's head. She sheathed it and then strode up to Mara with the smuggler at his side.

Raz took her weapon with a smile on her face as the smuggler bound Mara's hands.

"Vornskr." Raz answered Mara's question. "They're native to Myrkr, hunt Force users, they're very aggressive as you can see. I've had my own run-ins with 'em. My policy with them is to kill every single one."

She turned to the smuggler.

"Take her back to her cell, make sure she doesn't escape this time, wait, she probably broke the door… give her to Karrde I guess, tell him I've left to go and see my friend, tell him I must warn her."

XxX

The Emperor scowled as he gazed at his own comm unit, it was linked to every beacon any given one of his Hand's had, and one beacon was activate. He snarled angrily, it was Mara Jade's. Mara would only have a very good reason for switching her beacon on, she was either captured or stuck, the coordinates of where her signal was coming from were displayed neatly in holographic numbers. She was on Myrkr.

Sidious's temper was rising, he half felt like he should leave her there to get out of what ever predicament she was in, but she was to valuable, she may or may not know the location of Raz Vena, Sidious was not willing to gamble that she didn't know. But how was he going to rescue her? The Emperor's eyes raised from his comm unit, to the entrance to his throne room and Obi-Wan walked in, capes swishing behind him, he wore the mask of Darth Revan and looked terrifying, Sidious scowled lightened.

"I am ready master." Obi-Wan said through the voice scrambler in the mask. "Where is Moff Tarkin?"

"Tarkin no longer bears any title my apprentice, he is simply Tarkin now. He is locked in a cell, but never mind him. I'm afraid I will have to deal with him alone. I have a mission for you." Sidious said, not believing what he was thinking.

"Yes master?"

"A secret agent of the Empire has been captured, or is stuck on the planet Myrkr. I'm transferring her coordinates to your personal computer. She is highly valuable to the Empire, and if she is in custody she is probably in a camp of smugglers. She was looking for a dangerous woman there who could potentially threaten the Empire; the agent's name is Mara Jade. I want you to bring her back to me, look for any female smuggler there as well, bring any to me alive, and kill the rest. The female smuggler could potentially threaten the Empire, I need you to bring her directly to me, do not even speak with her, do you understand?"

"Yes my master."

"Then go Lord Vader, bring back the agent of the Empire and her target."

Obi-Wan nodded, kneeled, and made his way out of the throne room. Sidious's eyes, which were already sickly yellow, flashed a bloodcurdling black. This plan was far too risky. He had hidden Mara Jade for a reason, he had kept Raz Vena that he was hunting Raz Vena away from Obi-Wan for a reason, he knew Obi-Wan would most likely recognize her on sight, but he was confident Raz was either in disguise or had fled after she saw Mara, Raz was smart, but perhaps Mara knew where she was headed. Whatever the outcome he knew one thing, Mara would pay dearly for this slip up.


	7. Forced Escape

Chapter 7: Forced Escape

Mon Mothma and Bail Organa stepped into the large conference room. Anakin, Padmé, Luke, Leia and Admiral Ackbar sat around an ivory table, glinting in the light. Bail took a seat next to Anakin while Mon Mothma remained standing. She wore a long white gown and her short crimson hair was slicked back under a simple metal headdress.

"Bail and I have called you here today because we feel you are the most trust worthy people in league, and in leadership of this Rebel Alliance." Mon Mothma announced. "We have called you here to make an announcement. Grand Moff Tarkin has succumbed to his lust for power and betrayed the Emperor. We believe he was desperate to take control, he handed the plans to the Death Star over to us, most likely as a backup plan in case he failed to assassinate the Emperor, of course we never would have worked closely with Tarkin, and he has failed to carry out the assassination."

"Tarkin gave _us _the readouts of the Empire's super weapon?" Ackbar asked in shock. "This is unbelievable. I say we draw up a tactical plan to destroy the thing and get on with it!"

"Admiral," Padmé said calmly. "We aren't even aware of the station's location."

"Wait!" Leia shouted. "Are we just going to take what Tarkin says at face value? What if this is a trap to lure us to the Death Star and kill us all?"

"If Tarkin intended to do that why aren't we already dead?" Anakin interjected.

"What do you mean dad?" Leia asked.

"He means that if Tarkin handed us the fake plans he probably would have killed us because he knows the location of our base." Luke answered.

"Silence!" Mon Mothma ordered.

"Hold on a minute," Anakin said, raising a hand. "Does Tarkin know the location of our base?"

"He does," Bail replied.

"What?! We need to draw up that plan now!" Anakin cried in alarm. "If Tarkin knows the location of our base and he has been captured by Sidious he'll probably be tortured. What's to stop him from giving up our location?"

The room fell silent, Mon Mothma was not stupid, she had thought of this before and was fully prepared to evacuate at a moments notice. She had her sight set on a planet which had the potential to house another base. Everyone's face bore a grim look. Mon Mothma broke the silence and spoke again.

"Let's get planning."

XxX

The metal rods looked promising. They were most definitely made of a steel alloy, they held metal slabs on which crates of nameless supply boxes sat effectively creating shelves. Mara had no way of knowing for certain what the boxes contained but was convinced that if she could get a metal rod off the shelf, she could pry one open, if she found nothing useful then perhaps there was a chance to pry the door open, or she could use the rod as a weapon to kill the next person to come into her prison. As if on cue the door shot open, to bad she didn't have the rod.

Mara turned promptly as she door slammed shut to face Talon Karrde.

"Get out." Mara snapped, her standard answer to anyone who entered her supply shed prison these days.

Karrde smiled. "You're in no place to make demands, especially to me assassin."

"I'm not an assassin." Mara replied.

"A bounty hunter?"

"No."

"Then what are you exactly?"

For this question Mara remained silent. Karrde smiled again and gave a sigh; it had the mixed feeling of exasperation and gave the impression that he was impressed. He began to circle her. She kept completely still, not allowing her eyes to follow him.

"I admire your defiance, I really do, it is irritating though. Look, I can see you have a knack for espionage. You have everything a smuggler requires, would you join me if it meant I employed you and let you walk out of this shed?"

"Eat vornskr dung!"

Karrde chuckled. "I believe if you took the time to hear a comprehensive offer, you might say yes."

"I'd sooner gurgle toxic ship fuel."

"Well," Karrde said, behind her again. "It seems we have a problem, my budget is tight these days, the money I get from smuggling operations goes to my men as well as me for my personal use, the rest left over funds the supplies we have here, we're very tight in our budget, I cant afford to keep you healthy forever unless you are useful to me. So you have two choices, join me, or die."

Karrde rested his sweaty palms on Mara's shoulders and squeezed them tightly, the camouflage suit she was wearing squeaked as it was moved, Mara's lip curled.

Karrde didn't have time to react as a fist came flying at his face, he back stepped, clutching a bloody nose. Mara turned around and spat at his feet.

"Get out." She hissed.

Karrde chuckled again.

"You're a rebellious one. I'll give you time to think my offer over." He said, approaching the door. Mara rolled her eyes. Karrde gave her one last smile, she spit at him once more as he stepped out and left her alone in her prison, all was silent again, Mara turned back to look at the metal rods and resume her planning.

XxX

Myrkr was not unlike any other planet Obi-Wan had seen in his lifetime as a Jedi, or a Sith. It was an unspectacular shade of green mostly, probably full of grassland and forests, he gazed at it out of the view ports aboard the bridge of the super star destroyer _Executor_. On the green planet was an agent of the Empire, held captive by a band of smugglers, his mission of course, was to rescue her and capture any female smuggler he found, as the agent was hunting for a female smuggler, and then he could have fun killing the rest. He turned to face Admiral Piett who was approaching him in order to inquire about orders.

"Lord Vader," Piett acknowledged.

"Admiral," Obi-Wan replied, he had never gotten used to that name, never. "Scan the forest, and more remote areas of the planet for any signs of technology. It will most likely be the smuggler camp; I highly doubt there are more than fifty to a hundred men there, one hundred as the absolute maximum. So when the base is found we will send down three hundred troops to take the base quickly, I will accompany them."

"Of course milord, we shall begin scanning now."

"Very good Admiral, alert me when you have found something."

XxX

Obi-Wan stood amongst a hundred storm troopers, all cramped in a small troop transport, two more were flying side by side with it, commander Vill himself of the 501st legion stood next to him. They had been in the air for about fifteen minutes, he expected to land any moment on the grassy surface of Myrkr. It was as though the universe was taking cues from the Sith Lord's mind because right when the thought left his head the sounds of hydraulics could be heard, lowing landing struts, the ship jolted as they touched down moments later. Obi-Wan turned as the entire wall behind him dropped, forming a ramp which he treaded down to the surface of Myrkr. They had landed in a small hilly clearing, a forest surrounded them on every side, as far as the eye could see.

Obi-Wan took a slightly look around before turning to Commander Vill who was debarking the transport. The other two ships had landed and troops were debarking as well.

"Milord," Vill acknowledged. He pulled of his helmet which, along with the rest of his armor held a camouflage pattern, as did all of the other storm troopers.

"Commander Vill," Obi-Wan said. "Get all the troops into formation, I want to enter the woods within the hour and take the smuggler's base in the next."

"It will be done milord."

XxX

Just one last bit of effort was all it would take. Mara had completely loosened one of the metal rods holding the shelves in place; however the weight of the boxes it was supporting held the rod firmly in place. Mara picked up the only crate she could actually lift and hurled it with all her might at the rod, it hit it dead on and caused it to drop out of place, the shelf and the boxes immediately fell crashing loudly to the floor. The walls of the shed were so thick though that no one would hear it. Mara ran and grabbed the rod as well as a chunk of cement that had fallen from the wall, she ran the pole across it and watched as several sparks flew and hit the ground. This would work excellently as a sharpener.

She reached to run it across again but was interrupted when several blaster bolts cut through the door of the shed and burned themselves into the wall, a mere three feet away from her. She looked up in confusion as the door opened and storm trooper wearing camouflage armor entered, blasters pointed directly at her.

"Drop your weapon!" one ordered. Mara could hardly hear him over the roaring blaster fire outside now. Finally someone was here to rescue her, though she could have done it herself and she wondered why the Emperor would make this such a high profile job. Nevertheless she was getting rescued, if a bit forcibly. She dropped the pole and put her hands in the air, if they wanted to take her out of here in chains that was fine with her, she'd be free quite soon.

One of the storm troopers walked up to search her, the rest kept their weapons firmly trained on her while one more stood guard at the door. The trooper ran his hands down just about every part of her body, ticking her off and once he was finally satisfied she had no other weapons he cuffed her hands behind her back, keeping himself as close to her body as possible, disgusting creature! She would kill him once she was out of these cuffs!

XxX

The battle was nearing its end, dead smugglers lay strewn across the camp, as did some storm troopers but the Empire's casualties were considerably less than those of Talon Karrde's. The last of the survivors, including Karrde were now held up in the main dorm building which was surrounded by a mass of white armored troops. Obi-Wan stepped through them to the front entrance of the building which was sealed. He activated his blood red lightsaber and stabbed it into the door, cutting a circular hole he was step through. Once this was complete he pulled his blade out of the door and kicked the circular stab of metal through. He leapt into the lobby, storm troopers behind him. Several smugglers, including Talon Karrde opened fire.

Obi-Wan parried their blaster bolts, several fell by their own shots, and many more by the shots of storm troopers. Obi-Wan made his way to Karrde, cutting down men left and right. He stood but a few feet away from Karrde now. The smuggler leader raised his blaster pistol but never got the chance to fire, Obi-Wan flicked his saber once, Karrde's hand fell to the ground, still clutching its weapon. Then with a single flick of the wrist and a cut off scream Talon Karrde fell to the floor dead.

The room went quiet as the smugglers halted their firing; they looked with grim faces at their leader who lay on the floor, eyes open and staring into nothingness. They all then dropped their weapons; fell to their knees, and their hands shot up into the air. Vader's troops halted their fire as well and looked to their leader for orders.

"The Emperor has decreed that we take no prisoners." Obi-Wan said, he took a sweeping look at all the surrendered men who looked back at him with terrified faces. "Kill them all."

XxX

As Obi-Wan walked out of the dorm building he was approached by Commander Vill who bowed briefly.

"Did you find the agent?" Obi-Wan asked. "Or the woman she was hunting?"

"We're not sure sir, but I have confirmed we captured two women."

"Good, I would very much like to talk with them."

_**Two women?! Force! Perhaps Raz did not leave Myrkr in time? Find out in the next chapter, and as a small reminder please leave your feedback as it is much appreciated.**_


	8. The Insignificant Hand

_**Warning: The beginning of this chapter may contain some boring material, however the author advises you to read it as it is vital to future events to take place, this in no way indicates that future events implied in the beginning of this chapter will take place (though most likely they will happen) but simply implies that they might possibly take place. Also I would like to thank Darth Gladiator45 for beta reading this chapter since I am not so good at correcting myself, I felt since this chapter is so pivotal it should also have the best mechanics possible (when I say mechanics I mean punctuation and whatnot.) Enjoy.**_

Chapter 8: The Insignificant Hand

_Yavin IV_

Anakin was probably one of the last to step into the large auditorium room of the Rebel Alliance's secret base. Solders and high-ranking Alliances officials occupied rows of chairs alike. Mon Mothma, Bail Organa, and Admiral Ackbar all sat on seats on the stage around a large holo-projector, they conversed with one another silently, or maybe they were speaking audibly, no one would be able to tell since the room buzzed with the dull roar of voices. Anakin treaded down the central aisle between the lines of seats to the very front row where is family sat, Luke at the end, Leia next to him, and Padmé next to her. Next to Padmé was an unoccupied seat that was next to a chattering Weequay.

Anakin took the seat and kissed Padmé briefly.

"What's going on?" Anakin asked.

"You didn't get the memo?" Padmé asked curiously.

"What memo?"

"Bail Organa sent out a memo, Dad." Luke said. "This meeting is being held because they've finalized…"

But Luke ceased talking as the lights dimmed; even the annoying chattering Weequay shut its frog like mouth. Anakin directed his attention to the brightly lit stage as Mon Mothma stood up and walked in front of the holo-projector. With the bright, hot spotlights, shining down upon her she looked like the radiant red head angel that had come to save them all from the Empire.

"Quiet please," She said softly, her voice amplified by a small microphone clipped to the collar of her gown, it was barely noticeable from even the first row, and impossible to see from the second. The remaining conversing beings finally fell silent. "We have called you all here today to discuss a plan, a plan to bring down the Empire's super weapon, the Death Star. As you may or may not know Grand Moff Tarkin provided us with the technical specifications to the Death Star, he was desperate to betray the Emperor and conquer the Empire and I believe he wished to use us as insurance for his plan to succeed. He failed however, in killing the Emperor and is now an Imperial prisoner, as most of you know. From the plans provided by Tarkin, we have created a plan to destroy the Death Star. Admiral Ackbar, please."

"Thank you, Mon Mothma." Ackbar stated in his gravelly Mon Calamarian voice as he stepped up and took center stage. The spotlights dimmed slightly and a huge hologram of the Death Star sprang up, it was a wire frame mockup made of blue, semi transparent lines. A small trench on the station was highly noticeable, as it was the only thing made of yellow lines.

"The trench in yellow," Ackbar began, "is one of the main trenches of the super station. At the end is a thermal exhaust port which leads directly to the main reactor."

At that moment, the image of the Death Star disappeared and replaced by another hologram, except this one detailing the main reactor of the station and the exhaust port.

"In theory if a missile was fired down the exhaust port it would travel to the main reactor and destroy the station." Ackbar said. An animation then came to life. An orange dot zipped down the yellow line representing the exhaust port and smashed into the main reactor. The virtual station exploded, and in its ashes was born a detailed three-dimensional diagram of the trench.

"We have planned for several squadrons to fly down this trench; it is narrow so we will be using X-wing fighters. Once these fighters reach the end of the trench the lead one, will fire a proton torpedo into the exhaust port, then the Death Star destroyed and we can all celebrate, however in the event the leader misses the other ships in turn will fire at the exhaust port. Once a torpedo successfully goes down, we will retreat. That is our plan, we have decided to send Rogue Squadron on this mission, of course they will be accompanied by more ships as the Empire will likely send fighters after them, members of Rogue Squadron be prepared, the shaft is ray shielded and little more than two meters wide."

"Two meters!" A pilot of Rogue Squadron cried out. "That's impossible, even for a computer!"

"I used to be a podracer when I was nine." Anakin replied to him. "Only human who could do it, don't tell me anything is impossible."

The pilot did not speak again. Ackbar resumed the briefing.

"This plan is useless however, until we locate the Death Star." He said. "For that we have chosen General Anakin Skywalker, and Captain Luke Skywalker to lead a small attack force to ambush some supply ships on a known Death Star supply route. We know where a certain point of the route is but we don't know where it leads. Therefore, we will arm all ships with a new kind of torpedo that hit the hull of a ship directly and explodes, but before doing so launches several tracking devices onto it effectively fooling the enemy into thinking they have been hit with a regular missile. We will then let the ships escape and track them to the Death Star. General Skywalker and Captain Skywalker, are you up for the job?"

"We are." Anakin and Luke said in unison.

"Very well then," Ackbar said. "meeting dismissed."

XxX

Mara found herself bound to a small, cold, uncomfortable metal chair in a large pitch-black room; she and the woman next to her, a smuggler whom she did not know were only visible because of a ridiculously hot, bright interrogation light. Why did she have to go through this? The same thoughts were running through the other woman's mind, accept the other woman feared for her life, she had long blonde hair and draped in a dark gray prison uniform, as was Mara.

They both looked up as Darth Vader entered the light; he wore his usual menacing black garments and that sinister looking ancient Sith mask that had a voice scrambler installed in the mouthpiece.

"Welcome," Vader said, little did they know Vader was simply a title possessed by Obi-Wan Kenobi, the Sith Lord, even Mara Jade did not know his true identity. "To the _Executor._"

"Hey!" Mara snapped. "This is getting a little irritating; I'm an agent of the Empire! I demand to be set free; I want to speak with Lord Sidious at once!"

Under normal circumstances, Obi-Wan might have slapped her, or perhaps driven a dose of Force lightning into her body. However, if she was indeed the agent the Emperor had tasked him to locate… he had a way of knowing.

"If you are who you claim to be then tell me your ID number." Obi-Wan said.

"Jack-four-seven-alpha-five-six-three-delta-three-four-two-four…..."

"Something wrong?"

"I'm thinking of what to say for E!"

"Just say E!"

"No, it's more technical to say something like... emancipation."

"Come on…"

"Alright, the last ones are E-nine-one-two-eight-seven."

"That matches up with the code the Emperor gave me." Obi-Wan said. "Very well."

Mara leapt out of her seat as the Force undid her bindings. She stood next to Obi-Wan and looked down at the innocent blonde woman.

"I was told you were searching for a woman." Obi-Wan said.

"This isn't her." Mara replied. "I think she escaped."

"I'm sorry to hear that, the Emperor will be most displeased. This one is of no further use to us then?"

"No," Mara said, "the blonde-haired person was only the simple slave girl who cleaned the dorm rooms, or so she thought. Obi-Wan extended his hands, the girl cried out in terror as a wave of blue-white lightning slammed into her. Obi-Wan's last words echoed in Mara's mind as the woman's grim, shrieking screams filled the room. The Emperor would be disappointed in her, probably extremely angry, Mara snapped out of that train of thought when she saw the woman's body go limp, and the lightning stop. This she took as an ironic… almost prediction of the future, this seemed to suggest what might happen to her once Sidious discovered Raz Vena had escaped, if it was anything at all about this situation would in the future be reminiscent to hers then she feared, if she died, it would be far more odious.

XxX

Grand Moff Tarkin was now nobody, stripped of his rank, his title, his fortune, everything. He was now no better than a lackey. He was a poor humiliated man who sat _adorned _in an iron gray prison uniform, all alone in a dank and grimy cell waiting for his life to end. He looked up as the devil himself entered his prison, Lord Sidious had come unarmed, and there were no torture devices to seen. Tarkin waited, expecting a probe droid to enter or something more sinister perhaps, however the door slammed shut behind the Emperor who approached Tarkin slowly.

"I believe you are more intelligent than you appear to be, Tarkin." Sidious said. "I think you know why I am here."

"I am confused why you didn't bring any truth serum with you." Tarkin said back.

"I see, I thought I would just ask you first before I resort to torture, something I would just _hate _to inflict upon you." Sidious hissed sarcastically. "You will tell me why you tried to kill me and who is working with you."

"Perhaps I overestimated your intelligence, Emperor." Tarkin retorted. "I thought you would know that I would never willingly tell you anything."

"I'm giving you a gift Tarkin, take it, or you will regret your decision." Sidious hissed.

Tarkin refused to talk anymore. The Emperor shook his head slightly and extended his long, clawed, gray fingers.

"Fool," Sidious whispered hatefully as he pumped thousands of volts of lightning into Tarkin's body. The former Grand Moff convulsed in dreadful agony. Screams left his mouth as small clumps of skin began to tear themselves away from him and land on the floor, leaving a pinkish layer of new skin exposed and sending shocks of pure anguish through his nerve system. With one last dose of lightning the Emperor stopped, he looked at Tarkin's withering form on the floor. "Who is working with you? Why did you betray me? TALK!"

"No!" Tarkin cried, wincing as he moved.

"We'll see how well you resist when—"

Sidious whirled around as the cell door flew open; his eyes matched the color of the red robed guard's attire that entered.

"Milord," The guard said. "Mara Jade has just arrived, she requests an audience with you."

"Get out!" Sidious barked forebodingly. The guard knew better than to question, he promptly left the cell. Sidious turned to face Tarkin and delivered a swift and hard kick to his nose gushed scarlet blood all over the floor.

"I'll return Tarkin," Sidious warned. "When I come I hope that for your sake you'll be willing to cooperate."

XxX

Mara turned as the Emperor entered his throne room; she stood near his chair and awaiting his return. Before her brain could so much as register the command it received to open her mouth; she found herself flying through the air, her back slammed into the wall to the right of Sidious' throne; she slid to the floor and landed on her rear end, any attempt to stand was futile, held in place firmly by the Force. The Emperor's robe came into view; she raised her head to look into his eyes, which were a mixture of a sickening yellow and an evil red.

"You," Sidious rasped, extending a finger. Mara could not reply, she screamed out in pain as Force lightning slammed into her body. "Do you know what you have nearly cost me?"

"What? What the hell are you doing?" Mara cried over the cackle of the lightning and between her own screams. This seemed simply to fuel the Emperor's fury and the wave of lightning steadily increased in power, up to the point where Mara wondered if she could take it anymore, her suit to smoke and caught fire before Sidious ceased the onslaught of lightning and extinguished the fire with a wave of his hand.

"You nearly cost me my apprentice!" Sidious croaked.

"What?"

"You pathetic moron, are you blind as to why I had you hunting Raz Vena?" Sidious cried. He was trapping himself in an ever-going circle of rage; he sent another dose of Force lightning her way.

"Why?" Mara asked, her curiosity sparked, despite the fact she could barely move without a burst of agony surging through her body.

"Because I think Siri Tachi is alive!" Sidious cried, he was so enraged he didn't even realize he was revealing all of his plans to her. "Raz Vena is working with her!"

"Who is Siri Tachi?" Mara cried, and then screamed as Sidious randomly tossed a wave of lightning at her.

"The wife of Obi-Wan Kenobi! DARTH VADER!

"What?"

"She's supposed to be dead, that's why he became my apprentice, do you know what could happen if he finds her? I'd lose so much power… I ought to just kill you now, the like insignificant lackey you are."

"I'm your Hand! Your assassin, you cannot kill me!"

"You're as replaceable as a stormtrooper; do you honestly think you are my only servant?"

The next wave of lightning that hit her didn't hurt as much, she barely registered it, and a million different thoughts were rushing through her mind. She was replaceable, she was nothing, as worthless as a single stormtrooper… and she hadn't even screwed up on anything, if this bastard in front of her wasn't so ignorant, so blind, and so arrogant he would see that. She ought to just kill him… the lightning was becoming too much for her, it was so painful and so hot, she felt like she was submersed in molten carbonite! She had to save herself.

"I PUT A TRACKING DEVICE ON RAZ VENA'S SHIP!" She bellowed over the crackle of the lightning, which immediately disappeared, as though it had not even been there at all.

"You what?"

_Why should I even tell you? Go to hell!_ Mara thought, but then said. "I put a tracking device on Raz's ship."

"Really?"

"Yes." Mara said through gritted teeth, passing her attitude off as a gesture of pain, though in reality she was seething with rage, she _hated _this man, she _despised _him, she realized she had for a long time… he had been a plague on her life for as long as she could remember. He took her from her family, probably killed them, he repulsed her, all she could think about now was slashing his ugly throat. Therefore, she decided immediately that she would sabotage whatever attempts he of killing Siri Tachi. If she was indeed alive, she would do anything at all she could to kill him, and if what he said about Vader was true… perhaps she could enlist him as an ally, but she needed Raz Vena, just as Sidious needed her, for the same reason. To find Siri, she would show him who was insignificant.

"Well, for your sake it better be functional."

_My weapons are functional too!_

"It is functional." Mara groaned through gritted teeth as she stood up. "Go check."

_**Mara Jade was not harmed in the production of this chapter, however she did realize what the Emperor thought of her and remains exceedingly ticked off. The author of this fan fiction (namely me) wishes to remind you to leave feedback. Thank you all for reading this story. By the way the only thing I could think about while writing this chapter was making this last scene, I've given you golden clues about what is to come, maybe… maybe Anakin won't have to kill Obi-Wan at all? Maybe Siri is alive, maybe she isn't….**_


	9. Turning Point

_**I'm going to complain to you readers for a quick second and say it war harder the heck to name this chapter because it cuts from one thing to another and there's no real MAIN scene, I called it Turning Point because this I guess is where the story turns from one direction, namely the rise of the Empire and the Sith, and the Rebel Alliance, to the potential Fall of the Sith and destruction of the Empire because of what happens to Tarkin…. This is also a pivotal chapter, thus it was beta read by me, but I guess you would not really call it beta reading then, proofing I guess.**_

Chapter 9: Turning Point

The Emperor watched eagerly over her shoulder as Mara pulled out her own personal, hand held computer and keyed in the corresponding frequency of the tracer she had thrown on Raz's ship. It would take a few moments for the beacon to be located, especially if Raz was far away from Coruscant, Sidious smiled sadistically as a percentage meter began to count up from one percent, to five, to nine and so on.

"It'll take a few moments to locate the planet." Mara said.

"Silence," Sidious snapped as the counter neared ninety percent, ninety five, ninety seven, ninety nine… one hundred. The computer screen flashed and then displayed a file footage picture of the moon of Nul Hutta, Nar Shaddaa. Mara couldn't help but roll her eyes, she should have known. The Emperor cackled evilly behind her, she wanted to cut out his tongue and then make him swallow it.

"You may yet have redeemed yourself my servant." Sidious croaked. "Go to Nar Shaddaa immediately and bring me Raz Vena."

_I've got a better idea you ugly bastard, why don't I go to Nar Shaddaa and persuade her to tell me where this Siri Tachi is? Then I can go find her and tell Vader, he'll be so ticked at you then he'll join me while I cut out your intestines. Of course I'll provide you a bogus location on Siri's whereabouts._ Mara thought, making sure to keep it guarded. Of course she could never say it out loud so instead she gave Sidious exactly what he wanted.

"Of course my Emperor," she said, she had to act like a good little servant, existing only to fulfill her insane master's will. "I will find Raz."

"Good, good, and Mara there can be _no _mistakes this time, for if you fail you will pay the ultimate price."

_Looking at your face while it's not partially covered by that ugly hood?_

"Of course master, I will find her."

_When I find her I'll get Vader to side with me and hey, I guess the Rebel Alliance won't even have to do anything because we'll just kill you ourselves._

XxX

Tarkin now found himself facing the incredible crushing power of two Sith Lords and their wrath, he had assumed Sidious called his hound Vader down to his cell to help him question, Tarkin did not know how long he could hold out, he looked up into the deformed, monstrous face of the Emperor, and the masked unlooked upon face of his kath hound Vader. The shiny the round form of a probe droid hovered between them, waiting for orders to release its grip on that long syringe, filled with a system permeating venom that forced hallucinations and persuaded its victim to answer questions truthfully.

"Tarkin," Sidious spoke softly. "This is your final opportunity to cooperate, tell me why you betrayed me, and who is in league with you, otherwise you will force my hand and make me commit an act that you will deeply regret, much more than I. Now…?"

"I will not give in." Tarkin replied defiantly.

Sidious gritted his yellow and black teeth hard.

"Proceed with it, now." He spat through his rotting dentures, drips of saliva slithered through the gaps between his teeth and crashed into Tarkin's face.

"With pleasure," Obi-Wan said as he took the syringe from the droid. He had never liked Tarkin, never, and now… what he was about to do he… would not regret.

He stabbed the hyperbolic needle into the side of Tarkin's neck and with one swift stroke, injected the truth serum; Tarkin gasped as though he was being strangled when Obi-Wan pulled the needle out of his neck and clipped it back to the probe droid, which ejected a multifunction torture implement.

Tarkin fell off the cold steel bench and onto the floor, he felt as though he were about to vomit, a cold sweat ran down his face, he looked up at his two interrogators.

"Tell me what I want to know Tarkin, and all of this will vanish." Sidious said, his voice echoed loudly in Tarkin's ears. He winced and withered on the floor.

"NO!" he cried.

Sidious gritted his teeth and slammed his boot into Tarkin's gut, the former Grand Moff yelped in pain.

"SPEAK TARKIN!" Sidious's voice spat venom through his gritted teeth.

"I… I…"

Sidious snarled in rage and said something to the probe droid which sprayed a mild form of acid onto Tarkin's bare arms, if felt like molten rock had just contacted with his skin, Tarkin howled in agony.

"Yavin IV!" Tarkin cried incoherently.

"What about Yavin IV?" Obi-Wan asked, his curiosity whetted, could it be….

"On Yavin IV! They're all on Yavin IV!"

"Who is on Yavin IV? Who is working with you?" Sidious growled.

"YAVIN!" Tarkin screeched, the serum now taking full effect.

"I know the bloody moon, now who is on it?!" Sidious barked, his patience wearing thin.

"Admiral Mo…"

"What?" Obi-Wan asked.

"He's, the… on Yavin IV…"

Sidious snarled something as incoherent as Tarkin's explanation and grabbed the syringe off the probe droid again, he filled it up with the truth serum antidote and injected it into Tarkin; he was smart enough to see the mind probe was getting nowhere. Tarkin gasped again, as the effects of the serum wore off; he looked up at his questioners, fearing another dose of acid from the droid or another injection of that foul serum.

"Who is on Yavin IV?" Vader asked.

Tarkin gulped, and then coughed violently. He had to tell them, he couldn't handle anymore!

"The bloody Rebels, they're on Yavin! I wanted… to take over the Empire… I planned to use… them as a backup… plan."

"The… the Rebel Alliance…" Obi-Wan stated to himself, hardly daring to believe it. "On Yavin?"

"Yes!" Tarkin cried.

"We must move quickly." Sidious mumbled to himself. "The Rebels most likely know of Tarkin's capture, this intelligence may no longer be valid… Lord Vader?"

"Yes Master?"

"Report to the _Executor_. Bring your fleet to the Death Star; it is currently in orbit of Despayre awaiting final hull plating, it was due to become fully operational a week ago, regardless of whether or not it is you will attack Yavin IV, make sure to alert me to the Death Star's status and if I have any further orders for you I will tell you then. Go."

"Yes master," Obi-Wan said as he exited the cell. The Emperor turned his attention back to Tarkin who was regaining his strength, enough to stand up and look the evil man in the eye.

"You on the other hand will not be so fortunate; you will not be leaving this cell again, at least you will not know whether or not you do… farewell Tarkin."

With a swish of his robes the Emperor was gone; Tarkin watched as a storm trooper entered his prison domain and cocked a wicked looking blaster. He was about to die. He had to think quickly, the probe droid was still there… as the trooper disengaged the thumb safety Tarkin grabbed the full syringe of truth serum and stabbed it below the troopers neck. Surprised, the insignificant clone dropped his weapon which Tarkin grabbed from mid air and killed the man with the shot meant to execute him.

He had to move quickly.

It was irrelevant how much he disliked the task of stripping the dead man and putting his armor on, when he was satisfied with himself he picked up the blaster he had discarded, exited the cell and locked it. So far nothing seemed wrong. He walked down the cell bay and into the reception area and came face to face with the obese warden.

"Tarkin is dead," he reported, which seemed so odd to him since he himself was Tarkin, his voice filtered through the storm trooper helmet and came out in a bland, emotionless tone.

"Good, good," the warden replied distantly, and rudely. "I'll clean the mess up later; now get out of my sight."

Tarkin felt as though he should shoot this incredibly fat man, whose rudeness outweighed his blubber (though not by much). But he was too close to his freedom, so he stepped into the turbo lift and pressed a button for the floor where the landing areas were, now he had only one choice if he wished for his ambition to take over the Empire to become reality, he had to join with the Rebel Alliance, hopefully they wouldn't all be massacred by the time he arrived on Yavin IV, or worse, gone, it was nigh impossible to locate them.

XxX

Admiral Piett could sense that Lord Vader was in a good mood for once as the Sith Lord stepped onto the bridge of the _Executor_ and strode up quickly to the admiral.

"Piett, I know the location of the Rebel base, set a course for Despayre, we are to check on the production of the Death Star, if it is fully operational it will accompany us to crush the pitiful rebellion."

"This is good news milord." Piett said.

"Indeed, set a course now, then we kill them all."

XxX

Nar Shaddaa was a foul pit in all senses; it was one large crime infested planet with a cityscape not unlike Coruscant's. However this planet housed those who did not wish to be found, rather than self absorbed, stuffy imperial diplomats. So it made sense for Raz to choose this place as her sanctuary. Although that left one question in Mara's head unanswered, before Raz had left Myrkr she had told the guard who forcibly took Mara back to her cell that she had left to see an old "friend", and that she intended to warn that friend. So was that friend Siri? Most likely, was she on this planet? Hell if Mara knew.

She guided her ship down onto the landing platform of an apartment, an incredibly junky, run down, graffiti covered apartment which reeked like a locker room, even on the outside, she could smell it as she exited her ship. She took a glance over the apartment once, and was tempted to check her findings again, according to the tracking device this is where Raz's ship was, indeed _Raxor's Whip_ was sitting just a few meters away from Mara's, but who in their right mind would choose to hide _here_? This place was worse than most economically challenged, run down ghetto in Coruscant. Nevertheless she entered the complex and stepped into a lobby which was no nicer than the outside of the building, an old filing/teller droid stood behind a desk, it was covered in all kinds of dried substances, some resembled oil, others resembled baby vomit, it was also beat up with dents and nicks on practically every inch of its rusted body. Mara walked up to it.

"What can I do for you sir?" the droid asked, this took Mara back to her wonderful times on Tatooine, did every single third rate droid have to confuse her gender?!

"Hello idiot," Mara replied, the droid did not seem to notice. "I'm looking for Raz Vena."

"Are you a relative sir?"

"Oh yeah," Mara said sarcastically, though she was positive the droid was not equipped with the proper electronics to register her tone. "Yeah, I'm her sister Muriel."

"I see, and who are you looking for sir?"

"Raz Vena."

"One moment sir."

The droid typed a few things on a computer, was silent for a few moments and then directed its attention back to Mara.

"There are no matches sir, it seems a Raz Velia is registered."

_Zara Velia… Raz Velia… not very creative._ Mara thought. "Well that's my sister."

"I'm sure it is sir, however I will require identification."

_Oh, it can't distinguish the fact that I'm a woman but now it needs ID?_

Mara was getting irritated, she glanced around the room, searching for security cameras, and not surprisingly there were no functional cameras just one that was hanging by a blood red wire, obviously out of service.

Good.

She pulled out her blaster pistol and shot the droid directly where the chest of a human would be, oddly its head exploded and it fell to the ground. She hopped over the desk and faced the computer, the results for Raz Velia were still on display, written in huttese, luckily she knew enough to get by, Raz was in room 3489, top floor. That's where she was headed then.

XxX

Anakin and Luke stood on the bridge of the _Danticore_, a small Nebulon-B frigate which was floating in space right at the point where a stop on the Death Star supply route was located; they were accompanied by a fleet of more Nebulon-B frigates, the plan was to wait for a few transports to come out of hyperspace, then they would send X-wings out, armed with the customized torpedoes Admiral Ackbar had talked about in the briefing, the ones that released tracking devices onto the ship before hitting its hull and exploding, effectively fooling the enemy into thinking they were simply shot.

Father and son had been waiting for hours, both of them, and their crew were all on edge, everyone knew this was all they needed to do before attacking the Death Star, that was to find it. Soon they got their opportunity, three cargo transports shot out of hyperspace.

_**Two small cliffys, don't forget to review, and by the way I believe it was in chapter 3 that the taxi droid from Tatooine referred to Mara as "sir". I wanted to do that again, so I did, but I think it worked better this time, random comedy thrown out there usually doesn't flow to well (but I still do it), this I think was okay because it did not go on to long. Well now I'll shut up and let you review.**_


	10. Loyalties

_**I really need to get into a good action sequence. I need to find away to get one in there, it'll be at the end probably which is soon approaching. Anyway enjoy another snippy chapter with cuts from one thing to another, not to worry though. I am tying up all the story lines into one with this and the next chapter so we'll be focusing on one or two things instead of three or four. But all of this must happen for the fall of the Sith. **_

Chapter 10: Loyalties

It was clear the three cargo ships were not expecting to see a fleet of Nebulon-B frigates in their path. Anakin took full advantage of their momentary confusion.

"Fire on their weapons only! Don't hit anything else, especially their engines; make it look like we want to capture them by disarming them. Send out the X-wings." He ordered.

"Yes, general!" a crew member replied and relayed the order throughout the fleet.

"Officer!" Anakin called and looked to Luke. "Ready out ships."

XxX

Both father and son lifted off in a hanger lit by red alarm lights and shot into space, flying side by side they sped towards the three transports ships which were producing TIE fighters from their hangers like crazy. Three groups of five TIEs sped towards Anakin and Luke.

"This is where the fun begins." Anakin said through his comm, this reminded him of his old days as a Jedi Knight, back before the dark times, before the Empire, before Obi-Wan fell.

The enemy ships began to open fire; Anakin switched all available power to his forward deflector shields and was correct to assume Luke did the same. The green bursts of raw laser hit a few inches away from the hull of Anakin and Luke's X-wings and dissolved into nothingness. It was their turn now. Anakin fired back, explosions of blood red laser erupted from each cannon on his ship's wings, one TIE fighter was hit dead on and began to dive, gasses engulfing it in what looked like a blazing fire. It burst into blue-white sparks several thousand feet below them.

Only fourteen left, great. However two groups of the five broke off as some nameless squadron of B-wings flew past. A smile crept onto Anakin's face, for the first time in a long time he was able to let loose and enjoy what he was doing, his smiled widened as Luke pulled into a death roll be side him and shot down another TIE, two left, coming straight for them.

"Steady son," Anakin said. "At the last minute pull up, pull back, and then fire."

"Got it."

"Ready… pull up!"

Anakin pulled the yoke of the ship back and his craft shot straight up, pinning his back to the seat, he rolled over, flying upside down, though there was in fact no upside down in space as there was no gravity to pull someone down to a surface, thus no surface to stand on, no way to go upside down, so technically Anakin could have said the two TIE fighters, and the three large cargo transports, plus the Nebulon-B frigates were all upside down and he in fact was right side up. He pushed these foolish thoughts out of his head and killed the last TIE, she he swooped around and continued on his former course to the closest transport.

Luke stayed parallel to his father as they weaved their way through the battle area, killing Imperials and dodging laser blasts. The transport ships getting closer every second until their iron gray hulls filled Anakin and Luke's view ports.

"Prime your missiles." Anakin ordered.

"Priming," Luke replied as the details of the hull became disturbingly clearer.

"Fire!" Anakin cried at the last second, releasing the missiles and pulling up hard, he looped around as both missiles launched their tracking devices and exploded on the hull, creating large, circular scorch marks but doing little real damage to anything. Luke mirrored Anakin, however something went terribly wrong, only one missile fired and completed its job, the other was lodged in its launcher and by the time Luke had resumed his place next to his father the missile detonated, chewing his entire right wing off which sent the ship into a whirling spiral.

"LUKE!" Anakin roared.

"DAMN IT!" Luke cried as the spiraling became more intense.

Anakin had a split second to make a decision, one that could mean the life, or the death of his only son, one small, minute, one little error could destroy Luke's ship and rip it to shreds stained with the blood of its pilot. Anakin sunk into the Force and the world around him slowed, almost to a halt, the spins Luke's ship took went by so slowly that Anakin could count each one and have time to take a gulp of coffee (which of course he did not have with him). Anakin set his sights on Luke's other wing; this was either suicide, or pure brilliance. Anakin hoped with all hope it was the second one, for if it was the first…

Without the slightest hesitation Anakin pulled the trigger and Luke's other wing disappeared, morphing into a cloud of superheated gas and shrapnel. The ship straightened out and leveled with the hanger bay of the _Danticore_.

"Damn it, the blast fried my controls!" Luke shouted.

"Thank the Force it didn't kill you." Anakin replied quietly, mostly to himself. "Can you slow down?"

"No!"

"Hold on, speeding up."

Anakin's X-wing shot forward, taking a position in front of Luke's.

"I'm releasing a tow cable. Shut your engines down."

"I cant!"

"Use the Force!"

Anakin waited intently as the tow cable latched on to Luke's craft and stuck, he felt a ripple in the Force and saw Luke's engines die.

"Hold her steady, I'm taking you it." Anakin said and switched comm channels.

"Captain?" He asked.

"Yes sir?" the captain returned.

"Order in a full retreat, let the cargo ships escape, we're done here."

"Aye General Skywalker."

XxX

Mara gripped the hilt of her lightsaber as she stood outside Raz's apartment, doing her best to mask her presence. Her knuckles whitened as she gripped her unlit weapon, she could not sense Raz's presence either, just brief flashes of somewhat of… a signature odor that she could not lock on to. This worried her because she had no idea what to expect. Her lightsaber at the ready she stormed into the apartment and found a blood red blade at her neck. She looked to her right and was met by the sight of Raz Vena's flawless face, bathed in a sinister scarlet light. She realized the apartment itself was nearly completely dark; it had little furniture and was as run down as the entire ghetto regions of Nar Shaddaa.

"Well look who we have here," Raz said. "So how did you escape? Empire, I knew you were an agent."

"Listen Vena I'm only here to—"

"Shut up! You're here to kill me, I'm not blind, now take one last breath and pray to whatever god you worship."

"Wait!" Mara cried, taking a gamble and attempting to show good faith she released her grip of her lightsaber hilt and let it fall to the ground. Raz half snickered and kicked it away. "I'm only here for information!"

"Bull! Why should I listen to you?"

"Are so blind that you cannot sense it?!"

Mara released her mental shields and allowed Raz entry to her mind, she searched it for several long moments, reviewing what she had found over and over again to be sure, from what she could tell Mara was not being deceitful.

"You mentioned information?" Raz asked.

"I need it to kill that hideous son of a bantha, the Emperor!"

"Really?" Raz said, her interest sparked, she sensed no deceit at all, in fact there was sincerity in Mara's voice, a cold, cruel, vengeful sincerity.

"Yes."

Raz half smiled and deactivated her weapon, Mara turned to face her, Raz crossed her arms and studied Mara for a moment before speaking again.

"What can I tell you?"

"The location of Siri Tachi." Mara said, cutting to the point quickly. Raz frowned.

"There are prices in this world… Mara, is it? Certain things that cannot be paid, I can't tell you anything about Siri."

"Damn it, this isn't a negotiation, I need to know now! It could mean the end of the Emperor."

"I can't tell you."

"There is no _can't _Raz, there is only what you will do, and what you will not do. Now _will_ you tell me what I need to know?"

"No."

"But why, you've sided with the Emperor?!"

"No! Mara you should know that the world is never clear cut, nothing is predictable and there is more than black and white. Siri was the one who taught me the kick ass skills I use today to deal with scum like the Emperor."

"I fail to see the problem…"

"I betrayed her! I abandoned her on Azure a long time ago when she was being pursued by the Emperor. What she lost…. I _will_ not tell you."

"I know who Siri's husband is. Darth Vader, he used to be Obi-Wan Kenobi before Siri was supposed to have died. He always thought the CIS had her executed, but he was wrong, it was the Emperor. Help me find Siri, I can bring her back to her husband, you can settle the debt you owe her."

"It's not that simple. You don't know what my betrayal cost her… she's not only lost her husband."

"Well she can regain him if you tell me where she is."

"Mara… I've tried to be honorable and I've gotten off that path, working for Karrde wasn't exactly great, I've done it all not only to protect myself, but Siri. I will never forgive myself for what I cost her. Her child's blood might as well be on _my _hands."

"You left her… so she had to leave her child…'

"Yes. I don't know what happened but I'm betting her baby is dead."

"I see… I told you, if you help her bring her husband back to her…"

"I know, but before I told you where she is you had to know that. I assume the Emperor wants you to kill her."

"Yeah, fat chance."

"Good, I believe you, because if you were lying I would just kill you…. Siri is on a place that she thought was safe, I've been keeping the best tabs I can get on her, I wanted to help her if she was in danger."

"Where is she?"

"Coruscant."

XxX

Every procession was the same when an important Imperial figure came to the Death Star, a Lambda class shuttled touched down before about a legion of high ranking storm troopers, officers, and pilots, dressed in full uniform, and standing at attention. The greeting party, formally led by the traitorous and as far as Obi-Wan knew, late Grand Moff Tarkin, however it was now led by the most high ranking official found on the Death Star at the time, Admiral Motti.

Motti bowed respectfully to his superior, feigned respect that is.

"Lord Vader, welcome, your visit is unexpected…"

"Save any formalities Admiral, the location of the Rebel base has been found. What is the status of the Death Star?" Obi-Wan snapped urgently.

"It is fully operational sir." Motti replied.

"Excellent, the Emperor will be pleased to hear that." Obi-Wan said.

"Sir, may I inquire as to the status of the traitor Tarkin?" Motti asked, choosing how he phrased it and crafting his tone carefully. He believed Tarkin was dead, if so then he would finish the job, he had his own ambition to take over the Empire and it would be harder without Tarkin though.

"Grand Moff Tarkin is dead admiral," Obi-Wan replied, it sparked his curiosity as to why Motti would even care, Tarkin was continuously rude to all those under his command and used terror and fear to keep them in line, much like Obi-Wan himself did, so why would one of his abused servants even care what happened to him? "Now take me to the communications room. I must contact the Emperor, we have to move quickly."

"Of course sir."

XxX

"Rise Lord Vader." Sidious commanded, or rather his huge holographic image, both were just as menacing and hideous. Obi-Wan stood upon the black pad in the view of the camera, the room was dark and the hologram was the only source of light whatsoever. "What is the status of the Death Star?"

"It is completely operational, my master." Obi-Wan replied.

"Excellent," Sidious said disturbingly happily. "Set a course for Yavin IV, your fleet and the Death Star, both will be used for the attack. I am not interested in prisoners Lord Vader, do what must be done, do not hesitate, show no mercy, your former Padawan Anakin will most likely be there, as well as Masters Windu and Yoda."

"It will be done master." Obi-Wan said without hesitation. "However it will take about twenty four hours to reach Yavin IV with the Death Star."

"Very well," Sidious said distantly and looked off camera. "Wait a moment Lord Vader."

He stepped off camera, Obi-Wan could hear a bit of mumbling that he could not quite make out between the Emperor and some other person. However what he heard next was loud and clear, a shrieking scream of "WHAT!?" rang throughout the room in the Emperor's voice. There was the sound of a burst of lightning, and a bloodcurdling scream followed by a thud. Sidious stepped into camera view again, obviously seething with rage.

"Tarkin has escaped!" Sidious barked. "The warden did not wish to tell me, he is certainly not glad he did."

"How is that possible?" Vader asked, baffled.

"Apparently Tarkin somehow killed the storm trooper who was going to execute him, they found the man naked on the floor. Tarkin must have stole his armor and escaped."

"I will concentrate on Tarkin after the Rebels are defeated master. He will die." Obi-Wan vowed.

"Good, is there anything else?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"I believe Admiral Motti was working with Tarkin and is also a traitor."

"Interesting… at the first sign of betrayal kill him."

"Any particular way?"

"Use your imagination Lord Vader, now go and destroy the Rebel Alliance."

_**Man this chapter was so long, I originally planned for a huge other scene to take place but I had to end it because it would be too long for me, instead you'll see it in the next chapter. And then, maybe, just possibly, you'll finally get the truth about Siri Tachi. Also sorry for the delay in updating, school stuff, just got out so hopefully I'll be more productive.**_


	11. The Chase Ends

_**Now the moment you've all been waiting for, I hope, but before that a few other interesting scenes involving Tarkin and stuff. (To get what I mean about The Chase Ends, think back to chapter 3: On the Trail)**_

Chapter 11: The Chase Ends

Yavin was utterly unremarkable to say the least. Tarkin flew over it in the ship he had stolen when he made his escape; still wearing storm trooper armor except for the helmet which he had discarded somewhere. He hated those helmets. As he scanned the surface of the primitive moon for signs of technology he thought to himself that the Rebels had made a wise choice, Yavin IV was out of the way, nearly uninhabited, and completely insignificant except for several huge ancient temples built by the extinct Massassi race, but they had been scraped dry years ago, centuries ago maybe.

Tarkin's scanners brought back little readings, the Rebels were cloaking themselves well, however he read a bit of technology in a temple, he guessed it was probably their base, and that there was much more technology to be found but it was cloaked to well, had he done a simple, but usually effective cursory scan, instead of a major one he it would have been overlooked. He took his ship down into the atmosphere, lowering his altitude until he was above the tree line of the forest. He then briefly wondered what he would do if they just tried to shoot him down.

He doubted he was within their radar range yet though; he took a quick glance at his readings to make sure he was headed in the right direction, but then they flashed and died completely. He tried rebooting the system but it just came up with a cryptic error message, the Rebels were jamming him. A transmission then filtered through his comm system, he was given no choice as to whether he would accept it or not, it just happened.

"This transmission cannot be locked onto, it is being beamed by several high frequency, long rang, portable land satellites, encrypted thirty thousand bit." a clearly altered voice said, it sounded too deep to be that of any being. "We have several proton, and heat seeking torpedo launchers locked onto your craft. They will fire unless you land immediately at the coordinates we are sending you; we are discontinuing the jamming signal on your scanners so you will be able to locate the designated spot. You will not deviate from the course we are sending you on or you will be shot down. When you land you will come out unarmed or you will be killed. Is that understood?"

"Oh yes, quite clearly, you should brief intelligence operatives."

"Shut up and land." the voice ordered, and then his comm went dead. He glanced at his computer screen, the system had locked onto the coordinates, the landing sight was considerably close. He took his ship down into a large clearing in the lush jungle landscape. Several soldiers in jungle camouflage stood about his ship, the majority carried standard grade battle rifles, a select few were armed with anti aircraft missile launchers, and Tarkin could also see several large, portable turrets a few yards behind the tree line. He stepped out of his ship and found himself facing two beings he had not spotted, a tall dark skinned man with a bald head, and a small green alien with large ears, both draped in simple Jedi robes. They looked at him expressionlessly, masking the surprise they felt at seeing Grand Moff Tarkin, alone and on their doorstep.

"Ah, Master Yoda, Master Windu, I had heard you two survived the Clone Wars and the uprising of the Empire."

"The tyrannical, evil, and oppressive take over of a government that stood for peace and freedom by one that stood for slavery, tyranny, and fear, ruled by a Sith Lord so ruthless in his desire he wiped out the Jedi Order is not the same as the uprising of an Empire former Moff Tarkin." Mace Windu bit back icily.

"I agree Master Jedi, the Empire is corrupt."

"Is that why you planned to take over it?" Mace asked coldly.

"Mm, corrupt is and Empire ruled by Sidious, in ruins is an Empire ruled by Tarkin." Yoda said, more to himself.

"Insults are not the best way to start a negotiation." Tarkin said.

"A negotiation this is not." Yoda huffed defiantly.

"You're a prisoner Tarkin." Mace stated. "And you will remain that until we find out where your loyalties truly lie, with yourself, the Empire, or there's just a sliver of a chance they could lie with us, at least for now. And for your sake, you had better be loyal to us."

"Killing for no reason the Alliance will not do, execute prisoners it does not, crimes have you committed Tarkin, terrible crimes. Executed you could be." Yoda said thoughtfully.

"I see," Tarkin replied simply.

"Take him away." Mace ordered. The soldiers surrounded Tarkin in little more than the blink of an eye. His hands were bound tightly behind his back and he was led off into the jungle.

Yoda looked up at his comrade, and Mace looked down at his long time friend. They exchanged troubled glances.

"What does this mean?" Mace asked. Yoda had always been the wisest of the Jedi.

"Escaped Tarkin did, knew where our base was he did…. Possible it is that carnage comes to our door step; the Empire has found us perhaps. I sense these thoughts in his mind."

"If you're right…"

"Right I _am_."

"Then we must call a meeting."

XxX

Anakin tapped his foot impatiently on the bridge of the _Danticore_. The reports should have been in by now; he should have the location of the Death Star. He turned around to see Luke conversing with the captain. His face was grim, something was wrong. Anakin was about the find out. Luke approached him with a data pad in his hand.

"The ships immediately jumped back to Coruscant. They stayed there for a long while it is estimated, then our trackers were either disabled or somehow malfunctioned and we lost them, dad." Luke reported.

"This is bad news son, but I suppose it is a minor setback, we can always continue looking for the Death Star. But one day it will show its ugly head…. Tell the captain to set a course for Yavin."

XxX

The Emperor laughed hysterically, convincing Mara of his insanity as she brought Raz before him. Of course Raz was now in on Mara's plan so she had no reason to fear for her safety. The Emperor looked down at her for a long, disturbing moment with bright yellow eyes.

"You should never have betrayed me." Sidious rasped. His eye line went up to Mara's. "Has she provided you with a location?"

"Yes," Mara replied as she looked into the face of the tyrannical monster that she despised so much, the man who used her to do his selfish will, no better than a tool that would go unmissed if lost. "Dantooine, she's on Dantooine."

"Ah yes, an excellent choice, Dantooine is remote. Very well, find her, kill Vena."

"No, I don't think that would be a good idea master." Mara said, trying to sound respectful.

"Why?"

"What if she is lying?"

"Hmm, indeed, very well, take her with you."

"Yes master. I will leave immediately."

"Get out of my sight and find her."

_Not only are you a treacherous monster that would try to kill me if I accidentally slipped on the floor, but you're disrespecting me too? I am so gonna kill you!_

XxX

Siri was in the Works section of Coruscant. Mara should have known, the only people who ventured there were people looking to hide themselves from the universe, or those who would otherwise have no place to go. The entire section of Coruscant had been abandoned for many, many years, even the _great_ and _cunning_ Lord Sidious himself had hidden there while tending to his life long ambitions to rule the galaxy, destroy the Jedi, and just all around be a homicidal, even genocidal, blood thirsty maniac.

Mara flew her ship, Raz in the co pilot's seat towards the tallest building of a certain metal making factory in the industrial area which Raz remembered as Siri's main hideout. It was a good place to pick Mara supposed as she flew toward the tower, smoke billowed from the top, intertwining with itself and forming an intricate column. Despite the entire sector being abandoned for who knows how many years, or decades, or maybe even centuries fires still burned deep within it, fires used to shape metals and various other things.

Yes, it was a good place to hide. But Mara wondered why Sidious had not sensed Siri before, most importantly why Vader had not sensed her, if he was her husband he would surely have the strongest connection to her so he should have realized she was right on the planet he had more or less called home for most of his life. That left two possibilities, either the two Sith just never bothered to open their senses to the Works, or that Siri had a stunning gift to cloak herself, Mara guessed it was the second as she could sense nothing. She took her ship towards the top of the building, where there were many panels along the outside; one was clearly broken as it remained opened, unlike the rest of them. Perhaps it had happened in some battle. Mara didn't care. She followed Raz's instructions and flew her ship through the open hole in the side of the building and started the landing cycle as she hovered into a room that was clearly meant to be a small hanger.

She took notice of a cloaked figure approaching them swiftly as she lowered the ramp.

"Ready?" she asked Raz.

"No."

"Oh will you just shut up and follow me?!" Mara snapped impatiently, disengaging her crash webbing and standing up, making sure her lightsaber was at the ready. She didn't know how Siri would react.

"I doubt she's gonna be overwhelmed with joy when she sees me sweetie."

"Will you stop calling me that? It is getting plain disturbing."

"I call everybody sweetie. If you think that is disturbing then clearly you've never been to some parts of Corellia."

Mara rolled her eyes and treaded lightly to the opening of the ramp, she disembarked the ship cautiously, her hand clasping her lightsaber hilt, Raz treaded silently behind her, vibro sais on and at the ready, blades running down her arms in defensive positions. Mara was surprised to see the cloaked figure simply standing there as though he or most likely she was above being prepared for battle. Mara understood that the figure did not even need to hold any weapon at the ready when it extended a hand and a lightsaber hilt flew to it from a belt under the woman's black robes.

"What are you doing here?" the figure asked, clearly a woman. She lowered her hood to reveal the face of Siri Tachi, she had aged somewhat, her blonde hair was now considerably gray. She had a grim look on her face and many creased lines at her lips from years of frowning. "RAZ!"

"Siri wait!" Raz said. "I didn't come here to hurt you!"

"Hurt me? You couldn't possibly hurt me any more than you already have you conniving bi… who are you?" Siri asked looking at Mara. A strange… gaze in her eye, Mara could not quite pinpoint what was so odd but it was there.

"I am Mara Jade." Mara said simply. Siri's eyes narrowed quickly, and then a mysterious look of realization crossed them, she put her weapon away. Raz did as well and Mara followed suit.

"I will not kill either of you; I sense that you are not here for assassination or something like that. But it's weird, Raz Vena, and you Mara. Why are you here?" Siri asked.

"I know this sounds sort of corny and stupid but I was the Emperor's Hand, ever since he found me orphaned on Azure. I've been his servant, then one day I finally realized the sort of evil bastard he was. I want to kill him, I know Darth Vader can help me, in fact he's the only real chance I've got in succeeding, and I also know Darth Vader was once Obi-Wan Kenobi and that he was your husband. He always thought the Trade Federation killed you, but it was really the Emperor who tried to in order to ensure Obi-Wan's loyalty."

"I know," Siri said as a tear, almost invisible fell from her eye. "I planned on going to him… but there were… complications."

She flicked a hateful gaze at Raz.

"I'm not trying to be rude Miss… Tachi… Kenobi but I don't really give a crap at what complications there were."

"Excuse me?"

"Sorry, I told you I am trying to be rude but we need to leave now. Obi-Wan is about to make a huge mistake and attack potential allies, the Rebel Alliance. We have to stop him and he has to see you're alive."

"I see," Siri said, give Raz another spiteful stare. "I will go with you, even if that means I have to work with you again, Raz."

"I don't expect you to trust me…"

"Good because that is never going to happen! You're an arrogant bull headed assassin who happened to be Force sensitive, I tried to train you because I wanted to restore the Jedi order and kill Sidious but you betrayed me damn it! And… you cost me my child." Siri said quietly, she looked at Mara briefly and turned back to Raz. "But I think you've come close to redeeming yourself in my eyes."

"I'm trying to do what's right."

"Then let's go and see Obi-Wan."

XxX

Anakin and Luke both rushed into the briefing room as soon as they arrived at Yavin; there they found Mon Mothma, Admiral Ackbar, Bail Organa, Padmé, Yoda, Mace, Leia, and the last person they ever would have expected.

Tarkin.

They both stood gaping and speechless.

"Sit down Skywalkers'," Mace said sternly. Both took their respective seats. Tarkin eyed then like a hungry predator, gathering all the information he could about his prey.

"May I ask the most obvious question in the history of the universe?" Anakin said, completely baffled. "What the _hell_ is Grand Moff Tarkin doing at a meeting with the Rebel Alliance members?! Is he here to observe and then to report back to his master so they can come kill us all?!"

"_They _might just do that if you don't hold your tongue and listen." Tarkin snapped.

"Unless the universe has been destroyed I'm going to venture to say that you've got no authority in this room so who are you to talk to me that way?!" Anakin retorted.

"ENOUGH!" Mon Mothma cried. "Pull yourself together General Skywalker. As a matter of fact Tarkin is now a captain under the Rebel Alliance."

"Are you all completely insane?! Wait, how did this even happen, I leave the planet for a couple days and when I come back a high ranking Imperial, and I should probably add that the Imperials are our enemies and that this certain Imperial would have liked to see us all dead, is a captain in the Rebel Alliance?!"

"He came to warn us." Padmé said quietly.

"And you believe him?! This could be a trap; we could be playing into the Emperor's hands!"

"Silence Skywalker," Yoda ordered sternly. "No deceit have we sensed in him."

Anakin opened his mouth to protest but Mace Windu raised a hand to shut him up. Tarkin stood up then and for a moment both he and Anakin locked hard stares, then he began to speak.

"Darth Vader is about to attack with a fully operational Death Star, most likely." Tarkin announced. "We have to ready a fleet for a counter attack and set the plan in play you have to destroy the battle station."

"Our fleet is elsewhere." Ackbar said. "But we have called it in, at the moment we are at a tactical disadvantage."

"Well then, since this is just a simple meeting between the Alliance leaders plus the tyrannical Imperial I thought I should suggest something." Anakin said. "We need to prepare defenses _now_ and fully brief every pilot we have on planet now about the plan, even though we announced it."

"I agree," Tarkin said. Anakin's gaze was like a ball of fire that he shot at the new captain. "When our fleet arrives I will assist Admiral Ackbar in taking down the fleet the Death Star will most certainly have. I will need a ship to command."

Ackbar had a grim look plastered on his face, which no one really knew about since most Mon Calamarian expressions looked alike to them. Like Anakin, and everybody at the table he didn't like the idea of Tarkin in command of a ship, nor did he want to work along side their new _ally_. He had once been a slave to Tarkin, which is where he learned many of his military tactics, from his old enemy. What sort of sick joke was it that he was now working with that man?

"Your request has been granted." Mon Mothma said. "You will be in command of a ship Captain Tarkin. Meeting dismissed, we must now prepare ourselves."

XxX

The fleet arrived several hours later. Tarkin was now in command of the Mon Calamari cruiser, the largest and most powerful type of capitol ship the Rebel Alliance had in its arsenal, the rebels answer to the Imperial class star destroyer, it was called the _Dauntless_. Anakin scowled and reflected upon this as he walked with Yoda and Mace about the grounds of the temple.

"This is insane." Anakin said. "To let Tarkin command a capitol ship, he could turn against us in a flash."

"Agree I do," Yoda said. "But necessary it is."

"Anakin, don't let this cloud your judgment." Mace warned. "Be mindful."

How many times had he heard _that _before?

"Mm, mindful you must be Anakin," Yoda agreed. "For called upon you could be to kill Darth Vader once more."

"I know master." Anakin said.

"Worry about Tarkin do not, an eye on him I will keep, closely." Yoda assured Anakin.

All three Jedi instinctively activated their lightsabers as the alarms suddenly sprang to life. They exchanged glances briefly, deactivated their weapons and ran off to defeat the Empire.

_**Finally! I never thought I would get through this. If I really worked it out this had enough material for two chapters. Oh well, onto battle scenes, finally. Oh yeah, and Siri's back so I'm sure most of your questions are answered about that, except for one, and I am also sure her appearance might have raised a couple more.**_


	12. One Last Time

_**Replies to author notes the likes of which I could not reply to personally because they were anonymous: Usernames are Irrelevant: I am surprised you picked that up because it seems no one else did, don't assume that means it's true though. Perhaps I just want you to think that…….. for those of you who don't get what I am saying, read the review, for those of you who do not want to read the review, read the chapter, then when you are finished you can either read the review or not, but I recommend you do submit a review for yourself, detailing how much you loved or hated, or thought something in the middle of loving or hating the chapter in the review. Savvy? Okay I'm done and that wasn't even confusing, anyway just read the chapter.**_

Chapter 12: One Last Time

In the wars and battles of those ancient beings that inhabited the galaxy millions, billions, trillions of years ago there would have been the beating of drums before the horn was blown and the battle began. As Obi-Wan stood, draped in the midnight black robes of the Sith, wearing the mask of Darth Revan, and gazing out at the Rebel fleet before the emerald moon that was Yavin he could hear the drums beating. They sped up and grew louder and louder, his anxiousness that he masked well grew with them. The sound stopped immediately as he turned to see Admiral Piett.

"Orders sir?" Piett asked.

"Obviously we do not have to confirm the Rebels are here." Obi-Wan said, more to himself. "How long before the Death Star is within firing range?"

"About thirty minutes sir." Piett replied. "I think Admiral Motti was somewhat frustrated that you decided to go attack the Rebels before he fired."

"Well then he is clumsy as he is stupid. He's also a traitor, I trust now that his actions are predictable but when this is over we will have to take him out."

"I see, again sir, orders?"

"Let no one get past the defensive line, even the most insignificant ship. We've got them in a stranglehold. Avoid sending any ships to go broadside as it will create a hole ships could potentially slip through or perhaps open more. Understood Admiral Piett?"

"Aye sir," Piett replied, saluting.

"Excellent, ready my advanced X1 TIE fighter, I trust you can handle things from here, I also sense a presence… ready my ship Admiral. No further orders."

"Already being done sir." Piett said as he turned to face the crew. "Power up the deflector shields, load the turbo laser batteries, make sure you transfer the engine power to the forward deflector shields, I doubt we will need to go anywhere. Instruct all ships not to go broadside and hold the line. I don't want anything to get through!"

XxX

Anakin, Mace Windu, Luke, and Admiral Ackbar stood on the bridge of the Rebel Alliance flagship, a Mon Calamari Cruiser, modified with more fire power than the average Imperail Class Star Destroyer. It was called _Home One_. Among the four, two others were elsewhere in the battlefield, Leia was prepping to take an X-Wing class fighter out and Master Yoda was aboard the _Dauntless_, observing Captain Tarkin.

"I'm going out there." Luke announced and promptly left the bridge. Anakin did not argue but turned to Ackbar.

"What's your assessment Admiral?" Anakin asked.

"Obviously the Imperials greatly outnumber us with capitol ships thus they also outnumber us with fighters. From what I understand ETA for the Death Star to fire is about thirty minutes. You'll need to go out there and gather Rogue Squadron quickly, the Imperials haven't opened fire yet but I doubt they will wait for long."

"I agree." Anakin said, looking out of the view ports once more. There he saw the Imperial fleet, the iron gray hulls of the star destroyers seemed impregnable, and numerous, the mammoth dark blue super star destroyer before them looked daunting to overcome and would likely not be defeated, and on top of that several trillion miles away, though it only looked like a couple thousand feet, the Death Star could be seen, a tiny sliver of its silvery-gray hull peeked out from behind the gas planet of Yavin, it, along with the fleet and came out of space behind the planet and came around to face them, forming a curved line to hold any rebel ships back from reaching the super weapon, the super star destroyer at the head of the line. On board Anakin sensed the person he knew he had to face.

"Alright Admiral, I'm leaving." Anakin said.

"May the Force be with you." Mace Windu and Ackbar said in grim unison.

XxX

The first shots of battle were fired just as Obi-Wan entered space along with an armada of TIE fighters and TIE interceptors behind him. The first thing he saw was the huge Mon Calamari cruiser, obviously the flag ship, and the innumerable amount of X-Wings pouring from it. Of course the cruiser paled in size to the _Executor_ but it was still a sight to behold. Obi-Wan pushed forward on the throttle and shot towards the advancing line of rebel fighters, his armada of TIE fighters close behind him.

He watched the red, grid like target screen below him until he saw an X-Wing come into range, he promptly locked onto it and let off two missiles, then he pulled up and the lines of rebel ships and TIE fighters collided, breaking apart into separate little dogfights. Space was now alight with laser fire, huge streaming bolts from capitol ships colliding into one another, and small insignificant blasts from fighters, tearing apart their tiny enemies. Obi-Wan got on the tail of another X-Wing and fired; his green blasts of laser grazed the top canopy but did little damage as they were absorbed by the deflector shield. The X-Wing then pulled up slightly, out of the crosshairs. Obi-Wan gritted his teeth.

"The Force is strong with this one." He muttered, though the pilot on the receiving end of his potshots was not nearly strong enough to be considered Force sensitive. Finally, for a fraction of a second the X-Wing was within the crosshairs, Obi-Wan pulled back on the firing trigger and the X-Wing exploded into a red-orange cloud of superheated gas which he flew his X1 through. He smiled.

"_Lord Vader,"_ Piett's voice said through his comm.

"What is it admiral I busy killing people, you know how I don't like to be interrupted when I'm killing people."

"_Sorry Lord Vader, I too am busy, I am… hold a moment will you? Concentrate all fire on the cruisers starboard turbo laser batteries! If it's foolish enough to pull hard to starboard then blow out its starboard weapons! Now as I was saying Lord Vader I have a report in you might find helpful, ETA for the Death Star to fire, twenty minutes."_

"Very good Admiral," Obi-Wan said as he blew another X-Wing out of space, and guided his ship into a death roll as a B-Wing fired off two missiles at him. He pulled up sharply and looped back around to his previous course, the missiles lost his heat signature and switched to the nearest, largest source of heat which happened to be an Imperial Class Star Destroyer, they collided with the hull but inflicted no damage. "Now get back to destroying that cruiser."

"_Yes sir,"_ Piett said and cut the transmission.

As the seconds ticked away Obi-Wan shot more fighters into space dust. His comm beeped again and he hissed in irritation, however it was not Piett, it wasn't even an Imperial; he was intercepting a quick burst transmission… from Anakin.

"_This is General Skywalker calling all of Rogue Squadron, regroup with me, we don't have much time, we have to commence operations. Red Squadron and Gold Squadron, reform behind me so we can slip through the line."_ Anakin's voice said, though it was fuzzy with static and Obi-Wan's ears range with a huge explosion. He looked up through the top of his canopy for a moment to see a Corellian Corvette that had gone broadside with a Tartan Patrol Cruiser (which was against orders though Obi-Wan did not particularly care since in his mind Tartan Cruisers were totally dispensable, they were not really even capitol ships) explode into a ball of superheated gas, its engines created an earsplitting boom as they blasted into space dust, though the sound was muffled it was still quite loud.

Obi-Wan then turned his attention to Anakin and locked onto the coordinates that the fool was broadcasting. He made a sharp turn right, destroyed an A-Wing and sped off towards the underside of the large Rebel capitol ship which Anakin was under. Several dozen X-Wings were headed there too, as were several TIE interceptors that apparently intercepted the transmission as well. Anakin was a fool not to encrypt it, although there were only about seventeen minutes left until the Death Star was in range so that proved the theory that desperate times call for desperate measures.

The unsuspected X-Wing that held Anakin was now in Obi-Wan's sight, he fired off one, two, three, four missiles, now everyone would see the best pilot in the Jedi Order die in a space battle, it was a pity though, and Obi-Wan's only regret that he could not kill Anakin personally, after he sent that horrible assassin woman to destroy the holochrons in Darth Plagueis's tomb, preventing him from resurrecting his only love in the universe, Siri.

XxX

Alarms blared in Anakin's cockpit, he looked down at his screen to see in horror that four missiles were headed towards him, he noticed a new type of TIE fighter off in the distance, it was that fighter that fired the shots… it was Obi-Wan. Anakin quickly pulled back on the yoke and shot up. Luckily his faithful droid R2-D2 was serving as his astromech today.

"Okay R2, we're gonna go into an old trick here, standby reverse thrusters." Anakin said, he waited for a split second to see if the missiles would get off his tail, no, they were still on him and closing in fast! Hopefully this trick would not fail him…. He launched his ship into a sharp roll; the missiles followed the hot exhaust of the engines and circled around one another before colliding into each other an exploding. Taking a second to inhale a large amount of air Anakin switched his comms on while kicking his ship into gear and zooming away from Rogue Squadron, Obi-Wan was hot on his tail.

"Luke!" Anakin cried through the comm. "Luke, do you copy?!"

"_I copy dad, you want us to take out the guy on your tail?"_

"No, he's Darth Vader, Luke, the Sith Lord. I'm authorizing you to lead Rogue Squadron on with the plan, take Red Squadron and Gold Squadron too, you're in command of them all."

"_Alright, DAD LOOK OUT!"_

"Damn it!" Anakin said whilst switching off comms, two more missiles were on his tail. It was time for Obi-Wan to eat some now. Anakin banked upward sharply, flew upside down right over Obi-Wan's advanced new war toy and came down behind it, he unleashed a volley of laser fire on the Sith Lord's ship. Somehow Obi-Wan managed to dodge them all, he death rolled hard to the right, Anakin kept on him and opened fire again, he never actually intended to hit Obi-Wan; this was just a distraction.

"Lock onto him R2." Anakin commanded.

The droid returned a questioning beep.

"Do it!"

R2 replied with an acknowledgement and the crosshairs on Anakin's targeting computer locked onto Obi-Wan's ship. Anakin stopped his relentless fire attack and without a seconds hesitation… launched two proton torpedoes, locked onto the heat signature of Obi-Wan's engines. He tailed Obi-Wan and watched as the missiles closed—

The engines of the advanced X1 TIE craft shut down and Obi-Wan dived down. Anakin smashed balled up fists into his armrests as the torpedoes overshot and drilled into the hull of a Nebulon-B frigate. Anakin dived down after Obi-Wan, naively expecting him to switch his engines back on, instead, like the missiles Anakin overshot Obi-Wan's ship and once again found the Sith Lord on his tail.

"_Come now my padawan, you've always been a great pilot, what is wrong?" _came a deep mechanical voice from his comm, it was Obi-Wan.

Anakin had no retort and was dismayed to see Obi-Wan open fire, he dodged to the left, the blasts of laser overshot him, to the right, up down, death roll… everything, Obi-Wan did not let up, finally Anakin banked up hard, Obi-Wan was never one for taking risks, at least as a Jedi. He sped towards the hull of that same frigate he had unintentionally shot, when he was a mere centimeters above its bottom hull he pulled up, skimming its surface. To his utter shock Obi-Wan mirrored his move.

"You have certainly become a damn good pilot, Vader." Anakin said through his comm, knowing Obi-Wan was listening.

"_You don't know the power of the dark side Anakin." _Obi-Wan, or was it actually, undeniably, the unchangeable Vader? Was Anakin kidding himself, referring to that man as Obi-Wan all these years? Was Vader, or Obi-Wan, kidding _himself_?

"Yeah and I don't want to." Anakin retorted, breaking his train of thought.

"_I tried Anakin, I tried to make you see reason just there, but you did not listen, you never listen!"_

"Apparently neither do you! You remember the old Jedi prophecy? I'm the chosen one you Sith moron! I'm supposed to kill you!"

"Supposed_ to kill me, what is this Anakin, your third, maybe fourth attempt? And you haven't even so much as exchanged words with my master in twenty years."_

"You're different than when I knew you."

"_And you haven't changed my padawan, the weakness of your Jedi ilk. I think this conversation is over Anakin, you've let your guard slip; you're getting careless my padawan, is that perhaps because you don't want to kill me?"_

"You forced my hand Obi-Wan! Of course I don't want to kill you; you were my friend, my mentor."

"_Now I'm your enemy, your sworn foe, and you force _my_ hand."_

Anakin pulled up quickly and came around behind Obi-Wan, but not in time, his left engine blew out thanks to a blast of laser from Obi-Wan's ship. When he was on his master's tail he squeezed off a shot and blew out Obi-Wan's life support while turning of his other engine to prevent himself from spinning out of control.

"How long can you hold your breath _master_?"

Obi-Wan didn't reply, he banked sharply and skimmed up the side of the cruiser's hull, with what little momentum he had left from his engines propelling him at high speeds moments ago Anakin followed and watched as his enemy slipped inside a hanger bay, Anakin followed leaping out of his ship as he touched down on the metal floor. The bay was completely empty, save for the engineless X-Wing, the TIE craft without life support, and a Y-wing that was currently unused.

Anakin watched as Obi-Wan leapt out of his craft, draped in Sith robes and the mask of an ancient Sith that replaced the face of the master he had once known, the burned, scarred face. He sensed Obi-Wan's intent, the Y-wing.

"Don't even think about it." Anakin bit icily, activating his cerulean blade.

"Obviously it's now out of the question since you insist on blocking me from my exit." Obi-Wan shot back, extending a blade as red as all the Jedi blood he had spilt. "But you'll never defeat me, and your son will never reach the Death Star in time, my Admiral is very helpful, his name is Piett and before I landed he told me there are only fifteen minutes left until Yavin IV goes up in flames."

"Well I have a bit of a problem then, so I guess we'd better get started."

With a slash of blue crashing onto crimson, they did.

XxX

Luke was at the lead of Rogue Squadron, Wedge was covering his right flank and Biggs was covering his left, the rest of the squadron was behind him, Red Squadron and Gold Squadron flew ahead of them, the hull of the Death Star completely filled their view ports, with each passing second their wide view of it narrowed and the details became more defined.

"Rogue One," a voice on the comm system said. It was Luke's call sign.

"What is it Red Five?" Luke asked.

"Several TIE fighters approaching your squadron's left flank."

"I see them." Luke replied. "Rouge Five, Rouge Six, move to intercept, the rest of you stay with me."

Just then the TIE fighters and the guns on the hull of the Death Star opened fire in well timed unison.

_Perfect._

"Gold Squadron," Luke called. As he pulled up, flying mere feet above the hull of the Death Star which was sadly full of protruding towers and structures, he weaved between them, avoiding the fire from the turbo laser batteries, Rogue Squadron stayed tight on his tail, all of Red Squadron was busy, and most were in dogfights with TIE fighters.

"Copy Rouge One," Gold Leader acknowledged.

"Take care of those turbo lasers, I'm going in the trench, Wedge, Biggs, cover me, the rest of you guys do what you can against those towers and TIE's."

"Copy Luke," Wedge and Biggs said in unison.

"I copy Rouge One," Gold Leader said. Gold Squadron, and the remainder of Rouge Squadron then broke away and Luke, Wedge, and Biggs dropped into the trench. Soon the Death Star would be no more.

XxX

"Admiral Motti," said a captains voice from behind. Motti turned from gazing out of the view port on the Death Star's main control room.

"Yes captain?" Motti asked.

"We will be in range in approximately thirteen minutes." the captain reported.

"Excellent."

"However several squadrons of X-Wings have slipped through our line and are near the trench, three have broken off from the main group. I have studied the plans of the area where they are myself sir, there is indeed a vulnerability. We may not even get to fire our laser, shall I prepare your ship?"

"I think you overestimate their chances captain. Send out another squadron of TIE fighters to deal with them."

_**Ugh! Nearly 3000 words without these author notes. I hope you got your fill for now because I could take a couple days the post the next one which could be just as long or longer! Oh and your welcome for the cliffy with Obi-Wan and Anakin's fighter, ha ha ha! **_


	13. The Arrival

_**I just have to say to you guys… I want to write these action scenes but then I don't, they are fun but it is not easy writing action that spans on for a long time while trying to make it fast paced, dramatic, and hopefully fun to read… it is not easy writing these sword fights in detail, I know people have a hard time doing it. It's also hard to try and make every fight have some originality, I think the best duel I ever wrote was the one between Adi Gallia and Palpatine in The Rise of the Sith. Hopefully I can somehow rival that one with this… the last duel of Anakin and Obi-Wan… soon you will know the reason as to why.**_

Chapter 13: The Arrival

It was… in a word: scary. Obi-Wan had evolved into Darth Vader; it was shown in his fighting style which surpassed Anakin's in aggressiveness. During their duel in the hanger of the Nebulon-B frigate Anakin found himself constantly on the defensive, Obi-Wan attacked him with a fury he had never known of his former master. Anakin could remember the time when Obi-Wan commanded they style of Soresu… it was aggressive in its own right but it was also highly defensive, and that is how Obi-Wan used to fight, defensively, attacking only when opportunities presented themselves. Now Obi-Wan used a different style, actually a few, his was now a mixture of Anakin's own: Djem So, as well as Palpatine's, Juyo, and it also had a bit of Ataru in it with aerobatics, it was a mixture of these three different styles, all aggression, defense only when necessary, it was fast, decisive, and efficient, there was no more Soresu. Anakin had all he could do to get an attack in here and there.

As Obi-Wan delivered an overhead strike Anakin raised his blade to parry, back stepped, Obi-Wan preformed another strike to the left, right, then an uppercut, maybe coming in at the shoulder here and there, Anakin had to raise his blade to block every single one with lightning fast agility, or otherwise be cut down by the Sith. Finally Obi-Wan's relentless onslaught… slipped. The Sith Lord swung his blood red blade at Anakin's arm, Anakin then brought his blade up and the sabers locked. Behind the mask Obi-Wan gritted his teeth as he struggled against Anakin's strength. He had previously thought that perhaps his padawan was losing his touch. This was immediately proven untrue as Anakin broke the saber lock, sending Obi-Wan's arm flying backwards from force; however Anakin hesitated for going in with a killing blow. That was all Obi-Wan needed. He swiped his blade across Anakin's stomach, lightning fast reflexes was all that saved Anakin there. All Obi-Wan managed to do was create a singed line across his tunic.

Perhaps it was then that Anakin completely let go of whatever hope he had that Obi-Wan could possibly be saved. He wasn't even aware he had that hope at all, perhaps it was his subconscious, regardless it was released and then Obi-Wan didn't seem as aggressive, he did not seem to be on the offense so much anymore. There was no mistake that being a Sith had changed his fighting style, it was more aggressive, but now that Anakin had let go of his hope to save his master, everything became much simpler, Anakin struck with full force.

XxX

A lone X-wing sat is space near the hanger of a Nebulon-B cruiser. Leia was its pilot; she looked into the hanger bay, flashes of cerulean and scarlet collided and broke, sending flashes of white energy into the air, exploding on impact. Now there was no doubt in her mind that she had seen her father and Darth Vader enter that hanger. She had a choice now, she was assigned to go to the Death Star to reinforce the three squadrons along with several other X-wings, but she had to ignore that. She had to help her father. She kicked the throttle to full and shot inside the hanger bay, landing alongside Anakin's damaged X-wing, she hopped out to see her father and the Sith Lord locked in deadly combat. It seemed Anakin was getting the upper hand. Obi-Wan was now giving ground, but it all went to hell when she landed. Anakin's eyes flicked toward her, concern and fear evident in them, he knew, as skilled as Leia was, not even she and Luke together could defeat Obi-Wan, he was a Sith Lord, they were padawans only, on their way to knighthood. This was what drove Anakin to make a costly mistake.

His eyes locked onto hers for a single moment. "Leia get out of here! Run!" he cried. The moment he took to say this was enough. Anakin felt a boot contact with his chest; the force of Obi-Wan's kick stole his breath and knocked him flat on his back. Obi-Wan smiled beneath his mask, holding his saber high, ready for the killing blow. He looked down at his former apprentice who had bested him on Mustafar, giving him the need for this mask and his electronic limbs.

"Tell me Anakin, do you fear death, do you fear the dark abyss in which you will be trapped in for eternity?"

"The dark abyss is for Sith bastards like you!" Anakin spat. Obi-Wan chuckled.

"We'll see."

He swung his blood red blade down with all the strength he had, but it was stopped just inches away from Anakin's chest by an amethyst bar of energy. Leia looked into Obi-Wan's mask which stared back at her, their weapons locked over Anakin.

"Do you think this is wise…? Leia, is it?" Obi-Wan asked. "You, a mere padawan, crossing blades with a Sith Lord do you think you can best me?"

"I don't know do you want to find out?" Leia retorted.

"You're a fool."

Obi-Wan broke the saber lock, struck at Leia's leg, which she successfully parried; she slashed at her face but was stopped once more, impressive. But she was probably not skilled enough to… he feigned a slash at her left arm and then struck hard at her right. She wasn't fast enough; in just three blows she was defeated. Obi-Wan's saber sliced through her right arm, as smooth as a razor blade cutting through butter. Leia cried out in agony as pain shot up and down her nerve system. Her right arm, still holding the glowing violet blade fell to the ground, she along with it. Obi-Wan cackled loudly, he then turned to Anakin, it was his turn now.

XxX

Dauntless, _Bridge_

The battle was no longer focused between two lines of ships, it had gone completely to hell, plans were scrapped and everywhere ships were honoring the discontinuing of the order not to go broadside. Star Destroyers and Mon Calamari Cruisers pulled right up next to on another, starboard to port and just unleashed volleys of laser onto one another, blowing the hulls of their enemies into shreds and damaging ships severely. Tarkin had sweat on his brow as he furiously barked commands to the crew on the bridge of his cruiser that were to be relayed to the gunners on the starboard side which was so close to the port side of an Imperial Class Star Destroyer that they might have scratched one another's paint.

"Concentrate all fire on the Star Destroyer's batteries!" Tarkin bellowed to his gunner captain who quickly relayed the orders to the actual gunners. "If they cannot fire on us from their port side they'll go around starboard, we can get them then!"

"Concentrate fire also on their shield generator, within range it is." the green Jedi master at Tarkin's side ordered.

"Belay that!" Tarkin cried. "Their shields are low enough for our fire to get through! Concentrate all fire on their port batteries!"

The gunner captain, not really knowing who to obey sent a combination of both orders out to the gunners, Tarkin snarled and turned back to Yoda.

"You will not give orders on my ship!" he snapped.

"Your superior I am, the power to belay any of my orders you do not have Tarkin!" Yoda retorted.

The newly appointed captain did not dare retaliate, the Jedi master was indeed his superior, and the last thing in the universe he wanted to do was jeopardize his standing within the Rebellion, they did not trust him much at all at the moment, he did not want to lower their level of faith in him. However by the hard look on the Jedi Master's face he knew Yoda no longer trusted him _at all_.

"ETA for the Death Star to fire, what is it?" Yoda asked.

"I'd say about eleven minutes." Tarkin replied as the gunner captain opened his mouth to shout a report.

"Captain, we've depleted most of the Star Destroyer's port batteries, it's banking hard, about forty five degrees starboard!"

"Excellent, concentrate all fire on the engines! We'll stop it before it can turn and go broadside again!"

"Belay that!" Yoda shouted. "Concentrate all fire on the bridge tower we will."

Tarkin turned around to retaliate but decided it would be better if he did not speak at all.

"If destroyed their bridge is, then as good as useless it will be." Yoda said. Tarkin fought the urge to roll his eyes. Yoda simply turned away and walked toward the view ports, leaning heavily on the twisted gimmer stick wookies had given him so many years ago. Tarkin huffed and walked the opposite way, toward a holoprojector in the middle of the bridge so that he could watch how the battle was playing out.

Yoda gazed into space, it was filled with blasts of dazzling color as gnat like fighter's spat their hot venom at one another, and capitol ships launched blows of energy toward their enemies' hulls. Explosions of superheated gas popped up here and there, Yoda could feel the lives lost because of them. His gaze in the Force drifted from one to the next, but was eventually drawn to something out of place, some danger not of the space battle, taking place on a Nebulon-B frigate… and then he realized Anakin was in danger, he felt the anger of the Sith Lord Darth Vader who had stole Obi-Wan Kenobi's soul and replaced it with its own, and he also sensed pain, pain like burning spikes being pounded into the arm of Leia, accept there was no arm…. It became increasingly clear and less cryptic in Yoda's mind as he focused on it and understood. He set his sights away from the frigate, toward the lead capitol ship of the rebels, there he found the presence of Mace Windu which he reached out to contact.

"_Mace," _Yoda said through the Force.

"_Yoda?"_ Mace asked back.

"_In danger Anakin is, no time is there to explain. Go you must to the Nebulon-B frigate _Relentless_. There in the hanger you will find Leia injured, Vader and Anakin as well, deadly combat they will be locked in. Help him you must. Powerful Vader has become, unfocused on his goal Skywalker is I believe, blinded by his old friendship. Help him you must!"_

"_I'm on my way!"_

Yoda let go of the force as the ship jolted violently. He spun around and commanded of no one in particular:

"Status report?"

"We're trying to lock it down Jedi master," an officer said. "But we believe a potshot got through our shields and damaged the gravity generator."

"Get it locked down then and get them functioning fully!" Tarkin barked.

"We're trying sir, they are damaged! It's confirmed, I don't know if they'll give out, the gravity well was hit."

"Well then fix it!" Tarkin commanded.

"Belay that order," Yoda said. Tarkin would have huffed in anger and gritted his teeth had he not remembered that Yoda was his superior. "The gravity generator, shut it off you will, transfer its power to our starboard batteries!"

"No master Jedi you cannot be serious!" Tarkin cried. "Anything that is not locked down will begin to float, and it could be damaged! What if it is something important? Like the energy cells for our turbo laser batteries?!"

"A good thing it is that the Rebels have a protocol for locking everything down." Yoda said.

XxX

Anakin leapt to his feet and summoned his lightsaber. He shot a look at Leia who has just passed out from the pain. A look of anger crossed his face; Obi-Wan had just made a big mistake.

"What's the matter my apprentice?" Obi-Wan sneered. "You're daughter is alive."

"Shut up, you're really starting to tick me off!"

"Anakin, remember you cannot give into anger."

"I'll show you anger!"

Anakin pulled his arm back and launched his lightsaber at Obi-Wan, it spun like a saw as it flew toward the Sith Lord, today Obi-Wan decided he did not wish to be impaled so he back flipped and the spinning cerulean saw missed. It flew back to Anakin's hand, and by that time Anakin was a foot away from Obi-Wan. He could do absolutely nothing. Anakin's foot came up and hit Obi-Wan's right hand, he cursed as his weapon flew out of reach. Anakin smiled casually and pulled back his blade for the killing blow. Obi-Wan chuckled slightly, kicked Anakin hard in the shin, and then used the advantage of Anakin gasping, and then kneeling over in pain to disarm him as well.

Both the Jedi and the Sith put their arms up in defensive positions, the Jedi's view was not so narrow, neither was the Sith's. There was such thing as a situation where a lightsaber could not be used, nor could any other weapon, on top of that using the Force would be unnecessary since both combatants were equally adept in that field, so there was only one other option.

Anakin threw a punch at Obi-Wan's face, he wanted to break that mask that the Sith Lord coward behind to hide his injuries. Obi-Wan raised his arm and stopped him. He tossed a kick at Anakin's leg but missed as Anakin leapt about six feet in the air. Obi-Wan's eyes widened as a boot flew at his mask. Anakin for one sweet moment felt victory would follow this kick, he was wrong, with lightning fast reflexes that shocked even Anakin Obi-Wan grabbed his old apprentice's foot in mid air. Anakin lost all control over his attack and his landing and fell hard on his back.

Obi-Wan pulled his leg back and Anakin barely had time to roll backwards into a hand spring and then land on his feet before Obi-Wan's boot contacted with his groin, that would not have been good. It would seem that neither of the two combatants would really be able to gain an advantage over the other with this hand to hand combat, so Anakin did the only thing that would help as Obi-Wan flew at him. He called upon the force and delivered dozens of lightning fast blows, punch, kick, head butt, anything. Obi-Wan also tapped into the dark power that fed him and blocked every single move successfully. Finally Anakin let up his relentless volley of kicks and jabs and ducked as Obi-Wan tried to come around with a wicked right hook. He jumped up, spun in the air and Obi-Wan felt the roundhouse kick Anakin had just preformed contact with his shoulder; he flew to the left and hit the ground. Anakin landed and ran towards him, calling his dead blade and reigniting it as he went.

In seconds Obi-Wan saw a flash of cerulean coming down at his chest. It was a miracle that he was able to summon his own blade and stop it, mere inches away from his face, so close he could smell the ozone through the nostril holes of his mask, emanating from the two locked blades. It was again a contest of strength, one that would not really be decided as an X-Wing landed in the hanger and Mace Windu leapt out of it, his violet lightsaber already glowing in his dark hands.

As if to further prevent this contest from being decided any time soon several rebels, armed with long blaster rifles stormed into the hanger. It was then Obi-Wan realized he could not continue this.

He had to escape, now.

Anakin shot a glance at the rebels and Mace, using this to his advantage Obi-Wan tripped the Jedi, and leapt to his feet. Mace charged at him, saber raised high above his head. However Obi-Wan merely extended a hand and the Jedi Master flew into the hanger wall. The rebels then exchanged glances, however before the thought of opening fire solidified in their minds they found that the barrels of the blasters were missing, and a flying crimson lightsaber was heading back toward its wielder. Obi-Wan caught it in mid air, turned, and sprinted with the aid of the force to that single, unused Y-wing, he jumped into the cockpit and was off before either Anakin, or Mace had even gotten to their feet.

Once Anakin stood he ran to Leia and hastily checked he vitals, her pulse was stable and her breathing was fast but okay. Anakin breathed a small sigh of relief; however Leia was drifting in and out of consciousness and groaning quietly in pain. Anakin turned his head to the baffled rebels, whose rifle barrels lay at their feet, smoking slightly where the lightsaber had severed them.

"Get a gurney in here now! She needs medical attention!" Anakin ordered they all took off for assistance, leaving their useless weapons behind. Anakin kneeled down and whispered quietly in Leia's ear. "You're gonna be okay Leia, stay strong, you're like your mother, don't give up, you'll be fine, in a few days you'll be sparring with Luke again."

Mace crouched down next to Anakin, they're eyes locked.

"How much longer do we have?" Anakin asked gravely.

"Seven minutes," Mace replied, his face grim. Anakin nodded.

"See how the battle is going. I should get Padmé off planet… I'll try and contact Luke. He should have succeeded by now."

XxX

Obi-Wan's cape glided over several crew people's heads as he walked across the path above the crew pit. The Sith Lord approached Admiral Piett who was standing confidently at the bridge view ports, gazing out at the battle they were winning. He turned as he saw his commander's reflection in the window.

"Lord Vader," Piett acknowledged, bowing slightly.

"Admiral Piett," Obi-Wan said. "Has there been a report from the Death Star?"

"Yes sir, there has been." Piett replied. "Admiral Motti estimates seven minutes before they are in range."

"Excellent. When Yavin is destroyed we will kill him."

"What? Lord Vader, I'm sorry I must have heard wrong…"

"No Admiral, you did not hear wrong. Motti is a traitor, I trust that at the moment his actions are predictable, he was in league with Tarkin who wanted to take over the Empire. I trust Motti shares those ambitions and he will wipe out the rebels because they would get in his way. Then he will turn on us. Before that happens we must kill him."

"I see Lord Vader. I will see to it personally that Motti is taken out; I outrank many people not loyal to him on the Death Star as do you. But I will see to it personally milord."

"Thank you Admiral, but why the sudden volunteer?"

"I suspect that you'll have enough things to deal with. A ship just landed in our hanger bays, we suspected rebel sabotage but instead we found three women. Only one gave a name, Mara Jade, the Emperor's Hand."

"Hmm, Jade, I met her before when I rescued her from Myrkr and several smugglers. Whatever she wants it must be important, the Emperor gave no word she would be joining us. Bring her up and the others as well."

_**Oh look how evil I am. Sorry, Obi-Wan doesn't get to meet Siri once again till the next chapter, but at least I gave you the Obi-Wan/ Anakin fight. I decided to have them go into hand to hand combat because I've never seen Jedi or Sith do that, only once very briefly in Episode III on the Mustafar duel, I guess both of them get disarmed and then Obi-Wan or Anakin punches the other and then kicks him, this was just before Anakin had the saber at Obi-Wan's neck on the table I think, yes, it is somewhat weird I can remember all this. But ROTS is pretty much embedded in my brain, it was the last SW movie after all. I'll shut up now so you can tell me about my evil cliffy. **_


	14. Behind the Mask

_**You're all in luck, there's not much of a way to leave you with a big cliff hanger right now. However I'm going to enjoy prolonging Siri and Obi-Wan's meet as long as possible, hopefully an effect that will possibly build up anxiousness and perhaps annoy you slightly. There are some parts of certain movies or books where you (or I at least) just loved to be annoyed by an event being prolonged… enjoy. Also I am currently contemplating more Sith fics. I'm stuck between two to do after this, one is where Luke becomes the Emperor's Hand, and he does not know Vader is his father, but Vader knows Padmé is alive and so he finds her and eventually betrays the Empire. The next one is about a long series of events that will turn Luke Skywalker to the dark side, that one I'd love to do as well. I am currently working out kinks with them, so look forward to a dark Luke fic after this dark Obi-Wan fic is completed, either way I am writing one, maybe I'll write both.**_

Chapter 14: Behind the Mask…

Tarkin smiled in triumph. Not because he was standing on his feet once more since the gravity generators were back online, but because the Imperial Star Destroyer he had been dueling for the past few dozen minutes or so was now a mere burning chunk of metal, exploding in space. He turned to the Jedi that had belayed nearly all of his orders, but for the right reason and nodded.

"I suppose I should have listened to you." Tarkin said.

"Mm, a great military commander you are Captain Tarkin." Yoda said. "But lack some wisdom you do, glad that I was here to help I am."

"Thank you Master Yoda. I believe it was a good idea to join the Rebel Alliance; the Empire is corrupt, as I see it. Take me for example, I wanted control over it."

Yoda sensed truth in his words. Although at first he had believed Tarkin joined them to complete his agenda of taking over the Empire… perhaps now he realized he was wrong. Apparently fighting for the greater good could do that to you. Yoda simply nodded, turned around, and hobbled away; there was something he had to do.

"_Hear me Mace, can you?" _Yoda asked through the Force. Projecting the communication as loudly as he could possibly could, there was so much pain and death here. It was unfathomable, the mess it created in the Force. How disturbed it was. The Force could be considered a stream, the water flowing as its power. When its power is used it is as though a rock is thrown in that creates ripples, when someone dies there is much the same effect, when numerous lives are lost one can only imagine how… complex the ripples become, and how hard it is the use the Force.

"_I hear you Yoda."_ Mace's voice replied back.

"_What happened?"_

"_Anakin is fine. He's having Padmé brought up to the ship. Leia's arm was cut off by Vader, she is in the infirmary, medics are performing immediate surgery on her."_

"_Vader, what happened to him?"_

"_He fled, he was outnumbered."_

"_Mm, powerful he may believe he is, but when outnumbered, flee he does."_

"_Yes, he is a coward. A dangerous coward however, I should have killed him when I had the chance."_

"_What about Anakin?"_

"_Anakin did not have the chance. Right now I believe he is trying to contact Luke… we've got about five minutes left."_

XxX

The targeting computer told him he was more than two thirds of the way there, the exhaust port was so close now he could smell it, this time he would not fail, the Death Star would be destroyed. Wedge and Biggs were covering his flanks down the trench, Luke was grateful for that, the rest of the other squadrons were either busy pummeling the turbo lasers was blaster fire, or tangling with the TIE fighters that whoever was in charge of the Death Star had sent out to deal with the Rebels that he probably thought were here on a suicides mission. As Luke's destination drew nearer and nearer he felt someone trying to contact him through the Force. After a moment of probing (which was not easy as he was flying down a narrow trench, and having to occasionally avoid the less than frequent turbo laser fire) he found that it was his father. He opened up to let Anakin speak.

"_Luke, can you hear me?"_ His father's voice asked loudly in his head.

"_Loud and clear dad, but I'm trying to save the rebellion here, can this wait?"_

"_Don't think because you are in the middle of a battle you've been granted permission to take on that tone with _me_ son."_ Anakin warned. _"What is the situation; you should have destroyed the damn station by now!"_

"_It was Leia's pain that distracted me the first time around, I reached the end of the trench and overshot it. Is Leia okay?"_

"_She'll be fine. Just destroy it and get out of there! You've got less than five minutes."_

XxX

Obi-Wan gazed out at the battle as the thoughts poured into his head. Each time one minuscule rebel fighter exploded he wondered: _Why do the fools die? Their base is about to be destroyed and their fleet is in a chokehold. Why not surrender? They have no other choice… then again… whose to say I would _let _them surrender? I suppose it is better to die in battle, then to die after you've attempted surrender_.

It was then that Obi-Wan heard footsteps behind him. Finally the women were being let in, he was eager to talk to Mara to see what she wanted; he swiftly turned and was pleased to see his request would be granted as Mara Jade alone was led onto the bridge. She shrugged off the storm troops that were escorting her rather rudely and strode up to Obi-Wan.

"Mara Jade," he acknowledged.

"I don't have time for this Vader," Mara snapped. "I have someone here who needs to see you."

"You would do well to be cautious in the way you go about speaking to your superiors. Just because you are the Emperor's Hand does not mean you will get any sort of special treatment."

"I know, and I'm totally dispersible too, you have something important to tell me or will you let me bring in the two others with me? One _really _needs to speak with you!"

"Very well," Obi-Wan said, averting his gaze to the guard at the door to the bridge.

"Bring them in," he ordered, then turning back to Mara asked, "What is so important now that I need to see this other person."

Mara rolled her eyes disrespectfully as the two women were led in. Obi-Wan paid no attention to them at the moment; he waited intently for Mara's answer.

"Trust me Vader; it would take me hours to explain this to you." Mara replied. Before Obi-Wan could open his mouth she stepped out of the way, he now found himself facing the two women. Raz Vena he recognized outright, the cunning Sith wannabe who stole his chances to bring Siri back to life… but… Siri was standing right next to her!

He did not even dare to believe his eyes, it was impossible! He blinked several times and then finally opened them. She was still standing there. He could see her as clearly as he could see Piett in the background behind them, Siri… Siri was alive.

XxX

"Luke, there are three TIE fighters coming in behind us!" Bigg warned.

"Take them out, we're almost there." Luke ordered, he could clearly see the end of the trench. He briefly glanced back as both Wedge and Biggs pulled up sharply and swooped back behind the TIEs, two went down immediately, crashing into the hull of the battle station and exploding on impact. Luke stopped paying attention then, he was right at the end. With lightning fast reflexes he locked onto the exhaust port and pulled the trigger. He pulled up at the last moment, just as the proton torpedoes exploded from their launchers, all he could do now was pray to the Force that they would enter, there was not enough time for another go at it.

XxX

"It's difficult to explain," was all Siri could manage to say in the uncomfortable silence that had fallen upon her entry. Obi-Wan's eyes were locked on hers, though she could not see them. This was the moment that his whole world came crashing down upon him, it felt like the day she died. Everything was confusing, nothing made since; the entire universe had turned completely around. He was so distracted, and so mystified by her standing right in front of him, as alive as he was, that he barely acknowledged the huge explosion out in space that engulfed the Death Star. The crew however stared wide eyed at it, Obi-Wan continued to stare at Siri, and she back at him. Mara stood unsurely, would this make him inclined to want to kill the Emperor, or would it now? She could not do it without him. Raz simply tried to remain anonymous, the last thing she wanted was for Darth Vader himself to find out if was her fault that he had lost his only child.

"Milord, what are your orders?!" Piett barked, breaking the silence. Obi-Wan tore his gaze away from Siri and turned to the Admiral.

"Get out."

"What?! Lord Vader are you serious, we can't leave the bridge, who will control the ship?!"

"I said GET OUT! All of you get out of here now! Tell the fleet to cease fire." Obi-Wan barked.

"Lord Vader have you lost your mind?!" Piett cried. "We outnumber them, even though the Death Star is gone we can still take them out, we cannot surrender!"

"This is not a surrender Admiral, the situation has become complicated, follow my orders and leave. All of you leave now."

"With all due respect Lord Vader, is the situation complicated because you have to speak with an old girlfriend, is that why you are halting the battle?" a very brave, very foolish, _very _idiotic crew member dared to ask. Obi-Wan's eyes flashed sickly yellow under the mask; he snapped his gaze from Piett to the crew member and one final time said,

"Get out," with a deadly and dangerous conviction. So everyone filed out of the bridge, including Mara and Raz, the crew members shot nervous glances back at their respective stations. The _Executor _was mostly automated in its control systems; it really did not make a difference at the moment whether or not the crew was on the bridge.

As the blast doors slammed shut Obi-Wan looked at his dead wife again, who was in fact alive.

"Siri, what happened?"

XxX

Leia had been given sedatives for her pain and she was now sleeping peacefully on a cot in the infirmary of the _Relentless_. Where her right arm had previously been was a new metal appendage, golden in color and polished so much that it looked like a mirror. Anakin and Padmé sat by their daughter's side, oblivious to the fact the battle outside of the Nebulon-B frigate had stopped. Anakin looked at Leia's arm and then at his own, like father like daughter he supposed. But what sort of sick joke was it that Obi-Wan had cut off his daughters arm? He would kill him for this!

Anakin was interrupted from his imagining Obi-Wan's maimed and dead corpse on the ground as a man entered the infirmary and strode up to him.

"General Skywalker,"

"What?" Anakin asked.

"Admiral Ackbar ordered me to alert you that the Death Star has been destroyed and Captain Skywalker is safe."

"I know." Anakin replied.

"Also the Imperials have ceased fire, the Admiral in command named Piett said the order came from Darth Vader himself."

This sparked Anakin's interest. What in the universe could have caused Obi-Wan to halt the battle that he was _winning_? Even though the Death Star was destroyed Obi-Wan was fully capable of slaughtering every last organic being with a pulse on Yavin, not to mention crushing the rebel fleet.

"What?!" Anakin shouted. That was all he could say, he was utterly baffled by Obi-Wan's order to cease fire, was this some sort of trick? No, a trick seemed wildly unnecessary, the odds favored the Imperials greatly, they have boxed them in. What was going on?

XxX

"You're supposed to be dead Siri." Obi-Wan managed to choke out as he stood face to face with her, or rather face to mask.

"Obviously it didn't go over how Gunray planned it to." Siri replied.

"What happened?"

XxX

_It was a dark planet, a base of metal stood attached to the side of one of the only non volcanic mountains there was. It was engulfed in a barely visible blue shield that became evident when pieces of flying melted rock hit it. Inside in a small dim cell sat Siri Tachi, dressed in a white jump suit. She looked up as she saw three skinny battle droids enter her cell, guns held up and aimed at her head._

"_Hands up Jedi!" They ordered. Siri quirked an eyebrow and put her hands up._

"_On the ground!" Another commanded, this was followed by a series of "roger, roger's". _

_Siri bent down slightly and then leapt up, spinning in the air she kicked the heads off of each battle droid, two blasters were in either one of her hands before her three foes even hit the ground. She tore into the cell bay and ran to the exit. Droids noticed her and opened fire, with the Force as her ally she dodged the bolts easily and used her two blasters to cut them down. The end of the cell bay was near she skidded to a halt as two super battle droids came before her, she shot them in the faces, their heads exploded and they fell to the ground. The unarmed B1 battle droids in the reception area of the detention block turned to look at her and decided in their droid brains that the most viable option would be to run._

_They tore off and entered the turbo lifts. Siri followed and took one to the bottom floor._

_She exited it into a hallway, and took off to the nearest door, shooting droids in her path. One came out of a side corridor as she neared her exit. She leapt into the air and shot it in a mid flip. She landed as the door opened automatically and found herself on a balcony overlooking a massive river of lava. In her were seven droidekas._

_They clicked to themselves, apparently communicating as several super battle droids stepped up behind them. Siri turned to see more droidekas and super battle droids coming up to her. She was stuck between a rock and a hard place, both of which here highly deadly._

"_On the ground Jedi!" One of the super battle droids ordered as the new group of droidekas unrolled and aimed their blaster arms at her._

_If this was to be her final stand as she sensed than she was not going down without a fight. She aimed one blaster to her left and one to her right, she pulled both triggers. A volley of blaster fire erupted, super battle droids went down. The droidekas opened fire, with the Force as her ally she was able to block the bolts with her hands, the droids on their three pick like legs came at her then, she backed up towards the rail of the balcony, finally a potshot hit her in the leg, she clutched it and force pushed a good amount of droidekas away. Droidekas had a fatal flaw, their shields were designed to envelope their bodies on the ground, in the air they were not able to function properly and therefore went out. Several sheildless droidekas smashed into a wall and fell to the ground in pieces. _

_The rest kept on firing for several long painful minutes she kept their blasts at bay with the Force but finally one tore into her side, her hand flew to it and one last blast hit her straight in the shoulder, the force of it knocked her back and she fell over the balcony, down to the lava river below, she and her unborn child were seconds away from death. _

_But fate struck; there was a small outcropping of volcanic rock just a few feet below her. Siri grabbed it and clutched tightly, when she had completely stopped falling she pulled her other hand up, her feet dangled just thirty feet above the lava, the heat was so intense, she was immediately drenched in sweat. Calling upon the Force and all of her strength she pulled herself up, it felt as though thousands of nearly melted steel knifes were plunging into her shoulder. Finally she came up on the outcropping and rolled on her back, lying down she took several long deep breaths as the pain in her shoulder died down slightly, her leg did not hurt as much, though she was not sure how she would escape with it like that. She was alive, that was a start._

XxX

"I found a lightly guarded shuttle and took it after I got my stuff back. Then I went to Azure." Siri finished. Obi-Wan's eyes flashed crimson as she finished her story.

"I would kill every single one of those CIS rats again if I could." He growled through gritted teeth.

"Obi-Wan don't say things like that, and it wasn't the CIS that ordered my execution."

"What do you mean?"

"It was the Emperor Obi-Wan! He ordered my execution so that you would be easier to turn and so he could secure your loyalty."

Once more Obi-Wan felt his world… his universe crashing down upon him. Everything he knew to be true… or rather everything he thought he knew had just been disproved. It was the worst feeling he had ever experienced, worse than the grief and pain of Siri's death. Hell, it even topped having your legs and arms cut off and then lying on blazing hot rock near a flowing lava river. To know that his life… for the past twenty or so years had been nothing but a lie, that was a horrible feeling. He felt as though he were going to vomit, his head was so overloaded in information that his brain was trying to analyze all at the same time that he wanted to cut it off with is very own lightsaber! This could not be true, Siri must have been misled!

"How…" was the only thing he managed to choke out, he feared if he tried to put more words into the question and voice it properly then he might become insane.

"Mara found out, from the Emperor himself, when he tortured her for failing to find Raz Vena so she could lead her to me."

Raz Vena, how did Raz know Siri?! A question for another time perhaps, now the evidence was undeniable, Mara had no reason to lie, what would she gain from it, unless she wanted to earn Siri's trust to kill her, but no, Siri would be dead by now if that were true. That left only one possible answer, the Emperor. He had been behind this all, manipulating Obi-Wan's life so that he could be used as a tool, like Mara, like Dooku, like Darth Maul. Obi-Wan realized, as Mara had not so long ago that he was a mere tool, totally disposable, and most importantly Sidious had attempted to kill his wife and child… he knew what he had to do, everything he had just learned made sense, he had to eliminate the source of the problem, he had to eliminate Sidious, and he right next to the Rebel Alliance, perhaps he could bargain with them, not to mention he had half the Imperial army on his side. That was it, he would destroy the Emperor, but first things first, he had to start negotiating with the Alliance, and then create a plan of attack. After that was finished he would kill Sidious and he, Siri, and his child…

"Siri, where is our child?"

These words brought tears to Siri's eyes. "She's here; she's right on this ship."

Obi-Wan pulled off his mask then, to look upon his wife fully. She looked at his paled, burned face and more tears fell. Obi-Wan dropped the mask, it was a symbol of his master and he wanted nothing to do with it.

"Where is she Siri? Who is she?" Obi-Wan asked, approaching his wife and embracing her for the first time in years. He also felt relief in hearing his own, unaltered voice once more.

"She's… right outside the door. Mara Jade, Obi-Wan, she's our daughter." Siri said pulling herself away from her husband. At that moment Obi-Wan's Sith nature faded, he had a child, she was safe, she was outside the door, a tear slid down his face as the weight of the universe lifted and Obi-Wan realized he was no longer tied to the chains of the dark side, he felt a mixture of grief for everyone he murdered, coupled by a feeling of joy, that his child was here. Then he truly became Obi-Wan Kenobi again… the man behind the mask.

_**Originally I did not plan to reveal that Mara was Siri's and Obi-Wan's child until maybe the next chapter or after, but the situation called for it. Usernames are Irrelevant was correct which is why I had to say do not assume Mara is Siri's child, maybe I wanted you to think that, but in fact she is. Don't believe everything I say, read what's in the writing. One more small surprise about Sidious and his remaining Hands is to come, in the beginning of the next chapter. Anyway I would greatly appreciate it if I got a little feedback about this huge revelation. Also there is a theory that Mara is in fact Siri's child, I read about it on wookiepedia, so I decided hey, why not use that, creating OC's is fun but how am I going to create the child of Obi-Wan and Siri?**_


	15. The Emperor's New Hand

_**Note that I expect there will be between 17 and 19 chapters in this fic, I have not plotted that far but I know what is going to happen and I'll tell you that there's enough material for about two or three more chapters, maybe four or five, not to worry though, the climax has come, as well as more surprises… including… deaths, and new characters coming in. You may also want to note that this is an AU fic so all of the character's past that I am bringing in is somewhat the same, but different, it is difficult to explain and I would probably have to write an entire chapter about it. Okay Lumiya is being brought in, note that she is a cyborg, it happened in a crash among slightly different circumstances, I'll give a little detail, you know I am actually starting to confuse myself so how about we all drink a cherry coke and I'll write, then post the chapter which you will in turn read and hopefully review, whether it be positive or negative, preferably positive but whatever your opinion of this fic is I will take. Anyway I'll shut up now.**_

Chapter 15: The Emperor's New Hand

The Emperor sat in his chair at the end of his massive thrown room, a woman knelt before him, or… she _had been _a woman. It was hard to tell if she had crossed the line from being human to being a cyborg, perhaps she was more robotic than organic, or maybe it was the other way around. Either way she was his first choice to help deal with the… betrayal. Shira Brie, that had been this cyborg's name, but after a horrible crash that was little more than an accident, stupid, but true, she had crafted herself a new identity, Lumiya, she was the Emperor's Hand, and it was very possible that she would become his apprentice.

"Rise my friend." Sidious said.

"Yes my lord," Lumiya returned as she arose from her previous kneeling position. "Why have you called me from Zoist?"

"You can thank Mara Jade for your service call," The Emperor replied, venom in his voice.

"What does she have to do with this?" Lumiya asked.

"She betrayed me."

"Shall I kill her?"

"No, no, it is much more complicated than that my Hand."

"How so?"

"She has gone to Lord Vader, yes, the same Lord Vader who once showed you the ways of the dark side."

"Did she kill him or something like that?"

"No!" the Emperor barked. "Let me finish. She first completed the task I assigned her and found a woman named Siri Tachi, but then disobeyed my orders and took her to Vader."

"I'm still not clear on why this is a problem." Lumiya stated, confused about her master's rambling. The Empire was ruled by this horrible dictator, everyone feared him because of the awesome power he wielded, but that was not the only reason to fear this Lord Sidious, no, he was as unpredictable as an asteroid field and had the temper control of a wampa.

"Darth Vader was once known as the Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi," Sidious explained. "Siri Tachi was his wife. I can already sense my former apprentice turning away from the dark side. Do you understand?"

"Completely," Lumiya replied.

"Now you know what we must do?"

"Yes, Vader and Jade must be eliminated, as well as the Tachi woman."

"Partly, Vader's entire fleet has gone rogue; there is little that escapes my sight. They have plans to join the Rebel Alliance and to destroy me. I am calling in Grand Admiral Thrawn, we will take all available ships to Yavin IV and catch them off balance, you will join me, we must make sure Vader, Tachi, and Mara Jade are all dead, no mistakes, and we will obliterate every piece of rebel scum we come across."

"Very well my emperor," Lumiya agreed. "I would be honored to fight at your side."

"You are my most promising Hand Lumiya," Sidious said. "From this point onward your title is Darth Lumiya, my apprentice."

"Thank you… my master."

XxX

The moment Mara stepped onto the bridge of the _Executor _Siri let another tear fall, Obi-Wan watched as his daughter approached her parents, he had no idea what to think, excitement filled him, she was his _daughter_, the child of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Siri Tachi… Mara Jade, the word daughter ran across his mind nonstop, _his_ daughter.

"What's wrong with you Siri?" Mara asked, slightly concerned for the woman's emotional well being, not that she was an expert on emotions but Siri crying openly for no apparent reason did not seem to be a good thing. Oddly her long lost husband looked unfazed; he was staring at Mara as though she were some precious artifact that had been locked away for thousands of years. "What's going on here?"

"Mara," Siri said. "I wanted to tell you on Coruscant, but I thought it would be better to wait…"

"For what?" Mara asked. They had her completely lost now.

"To tell you…" Siri began, trailing off.

"That we are your parents." Obi-Wan finished.

There was a long, long, uncomfortable moment of silence as Mara simply stood there and looked at them.

"You can't be my parents." she stated definitely. "I was an orphan, the Emperor found me on Azure and took me to be his Hand… bastard."

"I had to Mara," Siri burst out confusing her daughter even more. "Raz betrayed me, she left me when I completed her training in the ways of the Force, the Emperor was right on my tail, you were just a baby… I had no choice but to leave you there."

When the words processed in Obi-Wan's brain he had half a mind to go and kill Raz for that little deed, but he realized he didn't care, he no longer felt any anger towards anyone except Sidious, all he wanted now was to have his daughter and wife back.

"I…" Mara trailed off. None of this made sense to her, she had no idea what to say or what to do, this was just insane, all of this was completely and utterly mental. The confused child of Obi-Wan and Siri now found herself rethinking her plans of trying to enlist Vader to her side so that they could both destroy the monster Darth Sidious.

"Mara, search your feelings, you know this to be true." Obi-Wan said. Mara looked at him, this was the first time she had even seen the Sith Lord, or the _former _Sith Lord without the mask. She looked at Siri and then looked at the floor, the Force spoke to her. It confirmed what the two before her were saying… she was their daughter. Suddenly she felt… indescribable, her feelings were utterly unreadable, even to her, jumping from one thing to another, the only decipherable thought within her jumbled mind was that she finally accepted who her parents were, and that they were standing right there, as clearly as she was.

"Mom… dad…."

And it was then that the veil before everything was torn away, Obi-Wan felt as though he could see clearly once more, he could see his wife, his daughter, his past misdeeds, the atrocities he committed as Lord Vader, and he could see his enemy, the enemy he had had since Darth Maul killed Qui-Gon on Naboo, the Emperor, it had been the Emperor all along. His daughter and his wife both reciprocated this feeling, they were together again, but in order for that to last… the Sith had to die… the fall of the dark lords had begun… now it needed to end, and would so on the Emperor's death.

XxX

Leia was awake, finally, Anakin and Padmé could now breathe easier to know their daughter was well. Luke felt relieved too as he sat at his sister's bedside. This moment of happiness was short lived as the darkness in the universe required the attention of the Skywalker family once more. A young man entered the infirmary of the Nebulon-B Frigate _Relentless_ and strode up to the group.

"I've been told to report that Darth Vader has asked to begin negotiations." The man stated. At those words Leia's upper lip formed somewhat of a snarl and Anakin's eyes narrowed. He looked up at the young officer.

"You mean he wishes to discuss the terms of his surrender?"

"I'm not sure sir, the exact word was _negotiations_. I cannot guess what it refers to and I don't have any further information except that Lord Vader has agreed to meet in a neutral location on Yavin's surface. Coordinates have been provided for you." The man said, handing Anakin a small datapad which the Jedi took and stuck in his pocket. "Master Yoda, Master Windu, Admiral Ackbar, Lady Mothma, Bail Organa, and Captain Tarkin are set to meet Lord Vader and his party."

"Why Tarkin?" Padmé could not help but ask.

"He knows the customs of the Imperials," the man replied without much concern. "Admiral Ackbar seemed to think it was necessary, he requested you attend General Skywalker."

"Alright," Anakin replied, though he felt a twinge of guilt at leaving his daughter, and the thought of facing the person who put her in the position she was in angered him.

"I'm going too," Leia stated with a grim finality.

"No you're not!" the lead doctor of the infirmary called, he was a tall thin man and very, very, annoyingly overprotective of his patients, he would not let a patient so much as turn on the holoscreen regardless of their condition for the fear that they would be overexerting themselves. Leia grunted at the denial.

"He's right," Anakin said. "You need rest."

"The man cut off my arm!" Leia countered. "I have a few things to say to him."

"So do I, and don't worry Leia, your thoughts will be voiced but you are staying here, that is final." Anakin stated.

"I'll come with you," Padmé said, she too did not want to leave her daughter's side but the present circumstances required her to do so.

"Alright," Anakin agreed. "But stay close to me, I don't trust Obi-Wan."

"I can take care of myself Anakin." Padmé retorted stubbornly.

"This is not up for negotiation." Anakin countered. "You can't use the Force; you can't protect yourself from him."

Padmé shot her husband a dirty look of irritation and stubbornness but she did not retaliate.

"I'm not trying to rush you General but the meeting is commencing." The officer said.

XxX

Anakin stood eagerly in some meaningless clearing in the jungle on Yavin, Mon Mothma, Yoda, Mace Windu, Admiral Ackbar, Tarkin, and Padmé at his side. Each of them shared Anakin's anticipation to meet with the Sith Lord Vader and see what he had to say, not one of them trusted him, especially Tarkin who knew first hand the kind of acts of betrayal he was capable of committing. As a precaution for their safety, Mon Mothma and Bail Organa's especially, they had the edge of the woods lined with well camouflaged snipers. Their fleet was also on standby to open fire should an unfortunate event occur.

The group looked into the sky as a Lambda class shuttle descended from the clouds, wings folding, and white hull glinting in the sunlight. They watched anxiously as its landing struts ejected and the ship touched down. Anakin, Mace, and Yoda instinctively gripped their unlit lightsabers as the ramp lowered. Obi-Wan was the first to step out, everyone was somewhat surprised to see his scarred face visible, he had shed his mask and hood. A man in a gray uniform followed him, he wore a badge with the rank of an Imperial Admiral on it, then three women filed out, Anakin, Yoda, and Mace were shocked to utter speechlessness when they saw one was Siri. The others they did not recognize.

The two parties simply stood there for a moment, staring at one another, the only sound was that of jungle creatures and the wind. Obi-Wan broke the silence.

"Siri, my wife has returned to me, as has my child." Obi-Wan said.

"Your child," Anakin mumbled to himself, barely audibly, even to Padmé who stood right next to him. They all watched as one of the Imperials, a tall red haired woman walked to stand next to her parents. Anakin looked from them to Yoda and Mace, he sensed their surprise in the Force, it was about as unnoticeable as a bomb would be, strapped to his leg when it detonated, though the two senior Jedi were very adept at hiding the astonishment on their faces.

"Mara Jade," Obi-Wan stated. "Is my daughter…. In light of these recent events I… wanted to offer the Rebel Alliance my help in disposing of the Empire so long as I can have my revenge on Sidious."

Yoda's ears visibly drooped several centimeters, he sensed the conflict in Obi-Wan who had turned his back on the dark side, although it still had its ties on him, his need for revenge was a prime example.

"I see a problem with your offer." Mon Mothma replied. "Why should we trust you? You were the Emperor's servant."

"You have no choice but to let me help you, whether you trust me or not. The Empire must fall and the Emperor is too dangerous to be left alive."

"Like all of the Jedi you murdered? Was Leia's arm to dangerous to be kept attached to her?!" Anakin retorted. "Like all of the _dangerous_ younglings who still lay strewn across the temple corridors?! They were killed by your lightsaber!"

Obi-Wan's pain was completely noticeable in the Force, Anakin did not buy it, he had a hard time believing Obi-Wan felt remorse, he only wanted to kill the Emperor for some selfish reason.

"That is all in the past," Obi-Wan said quietly.

"You would just dismiss it as a simple past misdeed?!" Anakin cried incredulously. No one made a move to stop him from arguing with the Sith Lord… or perhaps the_ former_ Sith Lord.

"I can't change it," Obi-Wan said. "But I can work at creating a better future."

Anakin still did not buy it, nor did anyone else for that matter. Still he let Obi-Wan speak.

"I propose we attack Carida and Coruscant simultaneously." The former Sith Lord said. "Most of the Empire's forces are dispatched around the galaxy, the only sizable force that could come to Coruscant's aid are the troops on Carida where the military Imperial Academy is based. We need to take that out as well as conquer Coruscant, then the Empire will be in ruins and we can deal with the remaining Imperials after that."

"You are bold to assume that we are going to take your word on this." Bail Organa said.

"You don't have a choice, the Emperor knows where you are, and sooner or later he will come looking for me when I don't return. We have to do this now; there is no time to waste."

"Fine," Mon Mothma agreed. The rebellion party looked at her as though she had gone insane, as though she had just decided to fly to the heart of the Empire, walk among the streets of Coruscant, and then knock on the Imperial's front door, hoping they would forgive her and then they could have tea and become the best of friends. "But you will be monitored Vader, very closely, the Rebel Alliance are not cold blooded killers, but we will do what is necessary should you betray us."

"Alright, I agree to your terms, I will let you take full command of every ship in my fleet if need be and a contingent of Rebel troops can monitor my activities so long as I can go and kill the Emperor."

"It may not all be necessary but I agree, however I am not sure I trust you enough to let you near the Emperor, for all we know you could be going to join him."

"I give you my word."

"That is worth nothing!" Mace Windu and Anakin spat simultaneously.

"That may be true, but that is the only assurance I can give you." Obi-Wan replied. "We must attack the Empire now."

"No," Ackbar said. "That is premature; we can't go rushing to Coruscant and Carida without a plan of action. That may be our best option but we need a strategy. We should start planning now."

XxX

_Chimaera, Bridge_

"All the preparations are complete." Said a blue Chiss from behind him, the Emperor turned to face Grand Admiral Thrawn, he smiled at the good news, Lumiya who had been standing next to him also turned to face the red eyed, high ranking Imperial.

"Excellent Grand Admiral Thrawn," Sidious hissed, pleased. "When the coordinates are set…"

"They are set milord." Thrawn said.

"Very well, you may jump to hyperspace when ready. Instruct the rest of the fleet to do the same. I trust you will not fail me."

"I will not fail you Emperor." Thrawn replied. "We will deal with these traitors and rebel scum immediately."

"I'll hold you to your word Thrawn, you were always reliable. Commence operations."

"Yes milord," Thrawn said. He promptly spun on the spot to face the captain of the _Chimaera_. "Captain Pellaeon, make the jump, instruct all ships to do the same."

"Of course sir," Pellaeon replied. Sidious smiled and turned to face the view ports. The stars of space glinted all around, they were so numerous, uncountable… as numerous as the casualties would be… on the rebel side… they would all die, but their death was unimportant, not to undermine the importance of destroying the cancer that was threatening the Empire but… the betrayal he had suffered by Vader outweighed it all, or now it was Obi-Wan Kenobi… wasn't it? Regardless he would die, the chains of the dark side no longer held him, he had escaped their strangling grasp… well… he would not live to tell the tale, nor would the traitorous, disposable tool Mara Jade, or Siri Tachi, all would die… very, very painfully. The Emperor's smile grew as the stars formed long white lines and disappeared into a whirlwind of brightness completely, each light-year the ship traveled brought him one step closer to fulfilling his goal, to kill Obi-Wan. The Sith order had been injured, but that wound would mend, the remedy was the woman next to him, Lumiya, the rise of the Sith would continue for the next millennia and beyond, nothing would stop it! Little did Lord Sidious know, even as far as his sight reached, that events had already been set in motion that could not be undone by his hand, or even the will of the Force… the fall of the Sith order had begun.

_**I'd like to tell you that I am trying to thoroughly edit my chapters now. I hope this one is pretty well edited, leave me a review and you can tell me about it if you please.**_


	16. The Last Battle

_**I'm not usually big on the significance of the last word of a story, but I am going to try very hard to make the last word of this one either Jedi, or Sith, as you can tell this story is coming to an end. Sorry… no trilogy this time. **_

Chapter 16: The Last Battle

Tensions ran thick on the bridge of the _Executor_. Not to say they had never been that way before, in fact tension was always at a high on the ship because of its commander, Darth Vader, but today it was different. Three people, who had not set foot on the bridge ever before stood near the open archway that led out of the quiet command center, Anakin, Leia, and Mace Windu. It was obvious the reason for their presence, to prevent any sort of betrayal on Obi-Wan's part, it was also obvious as to the reason Anakin and Leia were there, painfully obvious, they had the most reason to be angry with him and they made no effort to hide that fact as they watched him pace up and down the bridge. Siri and Mara stood in a corner conversing quietly and Raz was off on her own, leaning against the gray durasteel wall, arms crossed and thinking about all her past misdeeds, just like the former Sith Lord who was constantly receiving spiteful looks from the three Jedi near the door and nervous glances from the officers in the crew pit.

Their purpose for being there was that the plans to attack Coruscant and Carida were formed, and now the fleet was being organized, the giant superstar destroyer at the helm of the formation. All that remained was the order for group one to depart to Coruscant, and group two for Carida.

As Obi-Wan approached the triangular view ports for about the thousandth time today a ripple in space, coming up on the left side of the fleet's flank caught his attention. The three guarding Jedi noticed it as well and ran to get a better look next to Obi-Wan. A massive fleet of Imperial Star destroyers shot out of space near the very left of the flank where Captain Tarkin's Mon Calamari Cruiser was stationed along with a Nebulon-B frigate and a several other Mon Calamari Cruisers. Anakin narrowed his eyes as the rest of the fleet exited hyperspace and realization suddenly dawned on him. In a flash of movement he activated his cerulean lightsaber and Obi-Wan found he had his old apprentice's blade at his neck, Mace and Leia in turn activated their own amethyst blades and angled them at Obi-Wan's face, he looked to them, as did every other person in the bridge, Siri and Mara activated their own weapons and Raz slowly drew her vibro sais.

"What the hell is going on?" Anakin cried. "Why is that fleet here?!"

"I did not call anyone if that is what you're thinking!" Obi-Wan retorted. "I have no idea why they are here."

"One good reason, give me one good reason why we should believe you?!" Leia snapped.

"Because I am telling to truth!" Obi-Wan retaliated.

"Maybe I should just kill you now, my old master, and end it." Anakin suggested coldly.

"Anakin!" Mace warned. "If you kill him you'll be no better than he is, or the Emperor."

At those words Piett strode up to them rather abruptly, a highly concerned look crossed his face as Mace Windu angled his weapon at the admiral's chest.

"Lord Vader…"

"Lord Kenobi, Admiral." Obi-Wan corrected quickly.

"Yes, Lord Kenobi, there is an incoming transmission from one of the star destroyers!"

"You!" Anakin cried, moving his lightsaber so close to Obi-Wan's neck that it nearly singed his gruff beard. "Why are they contacting you?!"

"I don't know!" Obi-Wan shouted. "Why don't we find out? Piett, patch the transmission through!"

"Belay that order!" Leia barked. "First Vader, tell us why they are here, think real hard now… maybe I'll ease your passing with a swift stab through the heart!"

"I don't know!" Obi-Wan snapped as Siri and Mara took a step forward and Raz grabbed the blades of her sais, holding them in throwing position. The officers in the crew pit looked from Obi-Wan, to the three Jedi, and then at one another, confused as to what to do. "Piett, patch in the transmission!"

Piett who was growing very pale nodded to one of the officers and a hologram materialized on the bridge over the crew pits. Everyone turned to look at the cloaked figure standing there, smiling widely, Anakin shoved Obi-Wan in front of the Emperor's image, his lightsaber at the apparent Sith Lord's back. Siri and Mara took another step forward, ready to leap into action should Anakin try something, Raz pulled her arm back slightly, ready to let her weapons fly.

"Hello my _apprentice_." Sidious greeted. "I thought I would give you the professional courtesy of alerting you that you are about to die."

"Damn straight he is." Leia muttered under her breath.

"You never should have betrayed me and turned to the Rebel Alliance my friend. That is the last mistake you'll ever make."

"You!" Obi-Wan cried. "You tried to have my wife executed! I will kill you!"

At this the Emperor chuckled, once again realization dawned on Anakin. Obi-Wan had betrayed the Emperor, not the rebels. As much as he wanted vengeance for all that Obi-Wan did he knew he could not take it, he was a Jedi, he could not stoop to that level, and even if he could take vengeance, even if he was not a Jedi and bound to nothing but his own code… he knew he could not do it because it was wrong. He deactivated his weapon, Leia and Mace did the same, coming to the same realization he had. Siri and Mara followed suit and Raz sheathed her sais.

"Goodbye my foolish _apprentice_." Sidious growled. "For the last time."

The hologram disappeared in a flash of light and everyone turned to glance out the viewports as the Emperor's overwhelmingly large fleet opened fire.

"Charge up the port turbo laser batteries Admiral Piett!" Obi-Wan ordered. "Anakin, Mace, Leia, you should probably get on line with the rest of the fleet. Open fire!"

Anakin's eyes narrowed slightly, he did not like receiving orders from Obi-Wan, but he had to get a defense mounted now.

XxX

_Dauntless, Bridge_

"What is going on?" Tarkin asked in confusion, to no one in particular. Yoda's eyes narrowed as he watched the lead ship of the Imperial fleet heading towards them, preparing to go broadside with the Dauntless and the rest of the enemy fleet opening fire.

"The Emperor I sense." Yoda stated grimly. "Learned of Obi-Wan's betrayal he has."

Tarkin looked at the small Jedi master and then to the lead ship coming towards them.

"Prepare to broadside!" Tarkin shouted. "All gunners to their stations! Open fire!"

XxX

_Chimaera, Bridge_

The Emperor and his new apprentice Lumiya watched as their ship turned to go broadside with an enemy ship. Thousands of TIE fighters began to swarm in space, very few of the enemy's fighters had launched, they had caught them off balance. The Emperor smiled, he sensed Yoda on that ship as well as the traitorous Tarkin, an excellent way to warm up the turbo laser batteries, but the real prize was the enormous super star destroyer in the distance which had just unleashed a volley of fire toward his fleet. Slowly the rest were doing the same.

"Captain Pellaeon." Grand Admiral Thrawn addressed behind them.

"Yes Grand Admiral?" Pellaeon asked.

"Instruct the gunners to fire the ion cannons only, concentrate on taking out their weapons, then fire the proton torpedo launchers and destroy their shield generator, after that we will have them." Thrawn instructed.

"Very well," Pellaeon acknowledged and relayed the orders to the gunners.

Thrawn turned to face the Emperor and Lumiya,

"I've studied Tarkin; he keeps no artwork which suggests that he has no taste. That type of person would use only _his _own tactics, the ones he created. I know of Tarkin's strategies, I've used some of them myself before. I also know the way to counter it."

"Very well Grand Admiral Thrawn," The Emperor said. "Carry on. I want that ship destroyed."

Then Tarkin and Yoda would die, he would eliminate two great threats at the same time. Smiling at his own plan he turned to face his new apprentice.

"I trust you know what you must do?" Sidious asked.

"Yes, I'll take the explosives you issued me and attach them near the main reactor of the _Executor_." Lumiya acknowledged.

"I know you can complete this task my apprentice. When you are finished return here, we will discuss what do next, it is likely that Kenobi and the rest of his Jedi comrades will not be aboard the ship when it explodes. They will come for me; I want you here when that happens. Together we will kill them all."

"Will do, master."

"Excellent, commence operations."

XxX

_Executor, Bridge_

Space began to erupt with exchanging fire, whether it be the huge blasts created by the capitol ships, or the tiny streaks of laser emanating from the gnat-like star fighters swerving around in dog fights, there was no question, they were outnumbered. Even with this super star destroyer they would not win, unless the enemy was robbed of its commander, thankfully not one person had a problem with murdering the Emperor or any of his associates.

"That's it, I'm going out there." Obi-Wan stated

"As you wish milord," Piett said. "I am capable of commanding this ship."

"I know you are Admiral, I trust you will do well in my stead."

"Whoa, hold on a minute _Obi-Wan_." Anakin said. "You're not going out alone; you'll be killed in the first few minutes without cover."

"I'm completely capable of protecting myself without your help _Anakin_." Obi-Wan retorted, even though everyone had realized they were on the same side tensions were still at an all time high.

"The fact is I don't trust you enough to let you near the Emperor alone. I am going with you."

"Fine, I've ordered ten X1 type TIE fighters, they're expensive to mass produce but are good ships now that I've had the kinks worked out in their targeting systems. You can fly one of those, try not to wreck it. Anyone else feel the need to accompany me?" Obi-Wan asked.

"I'm coming father." Mara said.

"So am I." Siri added.

"I'm not going to be left out of this." Raz stated. "I need to repay my debt."

"Thank you Raz," Siri said. "That is more than a good start."

"I don't trust you people." Mace said. "Anakin is not going in without me."

"Or me." Leia said.

"Actually I _am_, Leia." Anakin stated with finality and a resolution that would not be broken. "You just had your arm cut off, you're staying here."

"But—"

"Don't argue with me." Anakin said icily. "You are staying."

"I'll contact Luke," Mace said. "We need all the help we can possibly get."

"Fine, let's just move!" Obi-Wan snapped.

XxX

_Space over Yavin IV, Near the Executor _

They were out now; Lumiya could sense it and her thoughts were confirmed as she saw several odd looking TIE craft drop down from the hangers of the colossal _Executor_. She watched as they zoomed past her, not even bothering to make one less enemy for themselves, it would have been an excellent idea to shoot down the modified TIE interceptor that was speeding toward the _Executor_'s hanger bays now. Lumiya liked the ship she had at her controls, it was not the standard interceptor you would see, it was modified with a slight bit of armor, as well as proton torpedoes and a life support system, standard TIE craft did not have life support systems, they would just weigh it down and the Empire had an obsession with obtaining superior fighters, because of all the systems taken from the TIE crafts they had become the most maneuverable star fighters in the galaxy, at least in Lumiya's experience.

She glanced at her radar screen; an X-Wing was on her tale. She shook her head, irritated, this would cost her time but with the capabilities of this modified, nimble, and lightning fast interceptor at her disposal she could probably take the enemy out in less than twenty seconds. To prove this to herself she banked up sharply, and shot forward, she then pulled up again, hard, but because she was flying upside down she dived behind her enemy and before the ill-fated pilot even knew what hit him his X-Wing exploded into a cloud of superheated gasses. Lumiya cranked up the interceptor to full throttle and sped towards the _Executor's _hangers. She landed easily in a _practically _deserted one, taking note that it was hanger D-047.

As her ship touched down, the new Lady of the Sith noticed several fully suited TIE fighter pilots running into the hanger bay, they were headed towards the latter to her far left side which led up to the suspended TIE fighters, ready to be launched. As soon as they saw the strange, unauthorized craft in their assigned hanger however, they drew their standard grade blaster pistols and approached it slowly.

Lumiya waited until they were practically three feet away from the ship, in one quick movement she opened her top hatch and leapt out into the hanger while activating a blood red lightsaber in mid air. The pilots never got a chance to shoot; she landed behind them, spun and slashed with inhuman speed. Two heads fell to the floor, and two bodies with them. The remaining pilot extended his pistol to take a shot, however he found that he no longer had a hand and then he died as a blood red lightsaber incinerated his heart. Lumiya shook her head at the pathetic fools and then quickly sprinted out of the hanger, now all she had to do was get to the main reactor and plant the bombs strapped to her belt.

XxX

_Dauntless, Bridge_

The entire cruiser jolted violently as several turbo laser blasts drilled into its hull and took out some important system. Yoda was able to keep his balance on the bridge due to the aid of the Force but everyone else either toppled over or nearly lost their balance. The _Chimaera _was battering their hull like a blood thirsty wampa, most of their turbo lasers were destroyed on the starboard side, they'd have to turn to face it port side, but for now they were defenseless. Yoda's ears drooped, there was little hope that they would survive, he would have to take an escape pod and soon.

Tarkin, after regaining his balance shouted orders madly.

"Hard to port! We need to turn around now!"

"We can't sir!" an alarmed officer cried from the crew pits. "Our engines are blow out! They're going for are shield generators!"

"Transfer as much available power as you can to the shield generator's area!"

"I can't sir, no shields are operating over forty percent, I'd have to transfer every deflector shield we have, then we might as well just let them destroy the generators and get on with it!"

"Who the hell do you think you are?!" an officer next to him cried. "You cant talk to the captain that way!"

"Who are you to—"

"Silence!" Yoda barked. "Abandon ship we must."

"Sir!" an officer cried. "All shield are operating at zero percent, they've blow a hole in the hull near the main reactor!"

Tarkin glanced out at his ship with wide eyes. "Abandon your posts! Abandon ship!"

No officer had to be told twice, they all scrambled for the exit. Yoda turned to follow them, calling on the Force to aid his walk. Without warning the ship jolted once more, very violently. An officer who happened to be next to a monitor cried out the problem.

"They've hit a fuel cell! There's a fire on the maintenance deck, near the main reactor!"

"Forget about it." Tarkin ordered. "Leave."

The officer nodded and promptly fled the bridge. Yoda and Tarkin were the only two left, the small Jedi master was near the door, Tarkin ran to catch up to him but was surprised when the wise little man stopped in his tracks.

"Master Yoda, we must leave!"

"Too late it is Captain." Yoda said sadly. "Glad to work with you… I was."

"This cant be! We must escape!"

"Stand Tarkin, an honorable captain you must be… go down with your ship."

"I can't, if you have a death wish then fine. I am leaving." Tarkin snapped. He took off out of the bridge and toward the escape pod bay. Yoda sighed as the man went out of sight; he looked back into the bridge and at the flashing screens in the crew pit. The fire was practically right next to the main reactor and in a few seconds the ship would be nothing but a smoldering hunk of metal. Yoda watched grimly as the screens went berserk, all power went out and red emergency lights came online. The little Jedi master gazed out in space for the last time.

"Failed I have," he mumbled to himself. "But begun… the fall has."

Everything flashed crimson and the wisest of Jedi went to join the Force.

XxX

_Chimaera, Bridge_

The Emperor fell into a cackling fit as the Mon Calamari Cruiser to their port side exploded into a bright cloud of superheated gas. He felt the lives of the crew be wiped away from the universe, and he felt the life of Yoda fade into the Force. He ended his insane cackling spell and turned to face Thrawn.

"You have done well." Sidious praised.

"Thank you sir," Thrawn replied. "However I should inform you that several TIE craft have landed in our hangers and another Mon Calamari Cruiser as well as two Nebulon-B frigates are coming in on our port side."

"Very well, take them out however you see fit, and ensure that the intruders are stopped." The Emperor ordered, although he knew that these uninvited victors would certainly make it to the bridge, they were all very powerful, and they were here to destroy him. However he decided he should at least hinder their progress until Lumiya came to his aid, as powerful as he was Sidious did not know if he could handle all of the intruders single handedly. He needed his apprentice. As Thrawn instructed that the gunners on port open fire Sidious pulled out his comlink.

"Report my apprentice." Sidious commanded as the communication went online.

"I'm at the _Executor's _main reactor." Lumiya reported back. "I've planted all of the bombs, I'm about to leave, at the moment I'm on a catwalk near the main reactor and…"

"Can you hear me my apprentice?"

"Yeah, sorry master I must go… there's a woman here with a lightsaber, she's just begging for me to kill her I think."

"Take care of it and report back to the _Chimaera _at once. The Jedi have landed, Vader is with them."

"Of course master. I have to go… hmm this woman has a mechanical arm… how interesting…"

_**Hmm… interesting how long this chapter is. Oh and yes Yoda is dead, weren't expecting that one were you, and now I leave you with a cliff hanger, Lumiya about to battle… oh you know who it is.**_


	17. The Abyss

_**Ok, I finished plotting out the entire fic, there's going to be a grand total of 19 chapters… starting with this one #17 and on we're going to see… a lot of lightsaber fighting. Enjoy it, I've worked out the sequences and I'm trying to make them original, however I've been easier on myself this time around. I'm going to spread them out in the chapters, inter cut with other stuff such as the battle in space… if I could I would do an epic all out lightsaber battle chapter like I ended the Unknown Son series with but I have to say that nearly killed me so I am going to make a very big epic lightsaber duel spread out between 3 chapters. Anyway I'll get on with it. And I will say right now, **__**don't believe everything you see**__**… or read in this case… oh yeah and enjoy the cliffy I will be leaving. And also the name of this chapter changed about three times. I finally settled for The Abyss, you'll see why.**_

Chapter 17: The Abyss

_Executor, Main Reactor Maintenance Catwalks_

Lumiya extended a blood red lightsaber as a woman with a metal appendage where her right arm would have been approached the Sith Lady; she carried an amethyst blade in her flesh hand. The two would-be combatants stood on a catwalk, to the left of them was the _Executor_'s colossal main reactor, and to the right was a mere wall, the ground was a good ten feet below them and bathed in blackness, this maintenance room was lit only with crimson emergency type lights which gave the place a dark, sinister feeling, several bombs attached to the main reactor itself added their own tiny, blinking scarlet lights to the darkness. Lumiya possessed the detonator in a pouch on her belt; all she had to do was overcome the obstacle in front of her and then get off the ship and use it.

"I want to make this easy for you." The woman with the purple blade said. "Hand over the detonator and I won't kill you."

At this threat, more like a joke, Lumiya rolled her eyes.

"You can't compete with me girl. I am a Lady of the Sith."

"I am a Jedi." The woman retorted violently.

"The daughter of Anakin Skywalker I sense… you are the lesser offspring of a fabled Chosen One."

"Enough!" Leia snapped. "I tried to make this easy for you… I really did, I said hand over the detonator, you chose not too, now I'll just have to take it from you."

"If you feel up to the task I invite you to try. How's your footing?"

Leia took one step forward; saber in a defensive position, Lumiya mirrored her, taking a step back. It seemed this Jedi girl was getting more and more irritated with each passing moment, exactly what the Sith Lady was hoping for. She almost laughed, this girl… it would seem that Anakin had spent more time grieving for his lost comrade Obi-Wan rather than training his daughter, and his son as well most likely, to be ideal Jedi. Then again anger was common among young padawans and eventually faded away; this was a dangerous time for young Leia, and young Luke…. Lumiya was sure, given the proper length of time and allowed all the subtleties that Leia, like Obi-Wan could be turned to the dark side.

Time was short though, Lumiya did not really have a choice but to kill the poor girl and she had the ship to blow up on top of that. Giving up on taunting Leia about her dueling style Lumiya struck up a defensive pose and waited. The young Jedi leapt into the air, becoming nothing but a blur of motion and the glow of an amethyst lightsaber. She landed behind her foe, flipped her weapon once, twice, and stabbed backwards, it was her intention to impale Lumiya through her spine, or perhaps synthetic spine, sadly her blade never pierced the cyborg's body and before Leia knew it she was flat on her face, the Sith Lady had delivered a disturbingly agile, accurate, and wicked kick to her back.

"Come on," the cyborg taunted. "That was pathetic."

Leia gritted her teeth in frustration, and in one slick move, spun into the air, landing firmly on her feet. She swiped at Lumiya's head, however her cunning enemy ducked fast and stabbed, forcing Leia to twist out of the direction of the blow and lean against the guard rail. Before she could react, Lumiya's foot, which looked like nothing more than a blurry shadow in the dark maintenance room, contacted with her neck. The padawan Jedi's violet blade fell onto the catwalk and deactivated instantly, emanating metallic clanks as it spun on the gritted floor, Leia was not as lucky as her weapon, she fell over the edge falling head first towards the unseen ground, she was about to die!

Lumiya shook her head, Leia was far too easy to defeat, she was almost disappointed. However that feeling vanished like the rest of her flesh had in that terrible crash the moment Leia flipped at the last moment and grabbed onto the catwalk. With one hand supporting her she looked up into the Sith Lady's eyes, and then down at the dark abyss below her feet. As Lumiya's black boot rose up to come crashing down on her hand Leia propelled herself into the air and back onto the catwalk. This time it was her turn. She hopped into the air and kicked the Sith woman in her groin, landed and then delivered a round house kick to Lumiya's head. Leia watched as her enemy flew off of the catwalk sank into the darkness, a moment later she heard a dull smack… and then nothing but silence… for several long moments the confused padawan simply stood there, contemplating her next move. Tapping into the Force she mindlessly called her dead blade back to her open palm while searching for any sign of her _fallen _foe.

She sensed nothing.

Anxiety gripped at her stomach, twisting it into a tangled mess of knots, the adrenaline began to course through her veins, and she did her best to calm herself—

Leia whirled around, while simultainously activating her weapon to face… nothing but the wall… but she had just heard, finally she realized the noise that had alerted her had simply been her own boot squeaking on the catwalk floor. She turned back quickly and looked down, half expecting Lumiya to come flying out of the darkness, weapon in hand, and attack her. Then something horribly ominous happened….

Nothing.

Leia deactivated her weapon, but kept the dead hilt in her tight grasp, taking a deep breath as if to blow her anxiousness away she made her choice. With a simple hop, without even the aid of the Force she leapt over the guardrail and into the darkness below, bracing herself to the landing and the terror the blackness held.

XxX

_Chimaera, Hanger Bay, ID Number Unknown_

Obi-Wan and his odd company of Jedi, former assassins, and previously presumed to be dead people all filed out of their advanced X1 TIE craft and into an empty hanger bay aboard the Imperial's apparent capitol ship, the _Chimaera_. Anakin strode up next to his former master who was staring at the black doors before him. Mace Windu, Siri Tachi, Mara Jade, Raz Vena, and Luke Skywalker (who had recently rendezvoused with the group in space) all jogged up behind them.

"What is it?" Mace asked.

"That was too easy." Obi-Wan replied.

"That was not easy!" Siri cried. "With a dozen TIE fighters on my tail it was all I could do to roll out of the way without being incinerated. That was not easy!"

"I mean there is no _welcoming _party here. This is too easy." Obi-Wan said.

"Obviously it's a trap." Mara stated, looking at her father gravely as he looked back at her.

"Next move?" Luke inquired, looking at the red headed woman next to him.

"Spring the trap." Mara said quirking an eyebrow. Luke was looking at her… rather mischievously; Obi-Wan shot the Jedi padawan a look of warning.

"We should just move on with it now." Siri said. "I'd like to kill the Emperor today if that is alright with everyone else. There's a battle going on outside!"

"I agree." Obi-Wan said, and before anyone else could concur (unnecessarily) the former Sith Lord began to walk, his former Jedi apprentice at his side, his wife, his daughter, an old Jedi friend, and his former apprentice's son tailing behind. Before they reached the black durasteel doors however, something unspeakably horrible happened. A ripple, no, an explosion that tremendously upset the balance of the Force rang out so loudly they all nearly fell over. A Jedi was dead… for half of a horrible second Anakin and Luke both suspected Leia… but… it was Yoda.

They all stood there in silence for a moment, completely oblivious to their surroundings and the fact that the door was slowly opening….

"How?" Mace finally choked out, the revelation this brought out put a very dreadful feeling to whatever morale they had come with. If Yoda was dead… how would any of them survive? That question could easily be answered by the mass of white armored troops encircling them… they would _not _survive. The group barely acknowledged the presence of the storm troopers, not seeing them as a real threat.

"Hands up Jedi!" one trooper called out.

"Oh will you just shut it?!" Raz snapped impatiently, lost in thoughts as were everyone else.

The trooper that had just ordered them to throw their hands into the air and surrender exchanged glances with him comrades, then he cocked his blaster rifled and spoke more firmly this time.

"Get on the ground and put your hands on your heads or we'll have to use force!"

Raz snarled angrily, swung around while drawing a sai, and plunged the incredibly sharp blade right through the trooper's armor and into his heart. She pulled it out swiftly and tossed it right through the left eye visor of the troop to her right, swung to the left and kicked the remaining enemy that was in her reach hard in the groin, followed up by activating her lightsaber and beheading him.

"I told you to shut up!" she shouted, that drew the attention of her comrades as well as the remaining storm troopers and the hanger was a light with glowing blades. The troopers were dead before any could fire a single shot. Raz wiped her hands together lightly and retrieved a bloody sai from the trooper's face, she picked up his gloved hand and clenched his lifeless fist around the blade, using it to wipe his own crimson blood off of her weapon, she then sheathed it and turned to face the group of Force users who were currently deactivating their respective weapons. Raz twitched her nose slightly.

"I hate the smell of charred flesh." She commented.

"Is that why you use those things?" Mara asked, referring to the vibro sais.

"No, they're just more fun." Raz replied simply.

"I think we should get a move on." Mace stated. "Yoda's death is… tragic, but it is a distraction that we can't afford to weigh us down."

"I agree." Obi-Wan stated. "Let's move."

The mixed assembly of bounty hunters, former Sith Lords, former Jedi, as well as current Jedi then proceeded to run out of the hanger bay doors and into the hallway behind them. It was there they came upon their next problem, halfway down the hall a ray shield materialized in front of them, Obi-Wan and Anakin grunted in frustration and the group reversed direction, only to find another shield in their path, the former master and apprentice exchanged glances. Each strode up opposite walls of the hallway and plunged their light lightsabers into them, only to find out they would go no further than ten inches, as that was the thickness of the wall and as far as their blades could penetrate since another ray shield halted them.

"Damn." Obi-Wan and Anakin both muttered under their breaths.

"Ray shields." Luke stated gloomily.

"We can see that genius!" Mara snapped, fighting the temptation to slap the young man upside the head.

"They're probably under the floor and above the ceiling too." Anakin said.

"So what do we do now?" Siri asked.

The former Sith Lord and his ex-Jedi apprentice exchanged glances once more.

"Wait." They stated in unison.

XxX

_Chimaera, Bridge_

"Milord," Grand Admiral Thrawn addressed from behind the Emperor's back.

Darth Sidious stood facing the triangular view ports, gazing out into space and observing the carnage his fleet was unleashing upon the group of disloyal Imperials, and irritating rebels.

"Yes Grand Admiral, what is it?" The Emperor asked.

"The Mon Calamari cruiser that pulled up along side us is almost down sir, the Nebulon-B frigates are no longer a problem and the rest of the fleet is progressing nicely."

"Is that all?" Sidious asked drearily, this was not news that he really cared about.

"No sir," Thrawn replied. "The intruders have been locked down in hallway 2019."

"Excellent, release a bit of knock out gas and bring them all to the bridge, with their weapons. I will kill them personally with their own blades. It would seem Lumiya is running behind."

"Of course sir."

"And have an open channel ready. I want everyone to see this, our ships, their ships. Open up a channel to _everyone_. Let them all watch as I kill their leaders… personally. An example will be made today Thrawn… no one shall ever again betray this Galactic Empire!"

XxX

_Executor_

Leia swung around silently and swiftly, ready to activate her lightsaber… however she stood facing only the wall, a creak from somewhere had alerted her. She spun again, facing the main reactor, this floor was so plain, and nearly pitch black, she could hardly see a thing. Where the hell was Lumiya?

Leia began to walk, her feet making no sound as they fell against the durasteel floor, she could see nothing but shadows in the. The floor around the main reactor was incredibly massive, she was at the far edge of it would not be that far fetched to suggest that the reactor was half a mile away from the very spot she stood.

Lumiya could literally be _anywhere_. The question was _where_? Leia tapped into the Force to search for her adversary once more, her efforts once again proved futile…. This woman, this cyborg was good, she was excellent. For a brief moment Leia felt as though she were out of her league, Lumiya could simply stab her in the back, and she would not even know what it was that killed her. Leia's ears picked up a sound once more, something that sounded quite like barely audible footfalls right in front of her, in a flash of movement she activated her amethyst blade and charged like an angry bull towards the source of the sound, pulling her lightsaber back she swung it forward at the silhouette in the darkness, her blow was not parried and her opponent's head fell to the ground with a _clang._

It was just a maintenance droid… just a—

Leia swung her saber behind her and successfully stopped a blood red blade from separating her torso from her legs. As soon as Lumiya pulled her saber back Leia spun and struck at the Sith Lady's head, her strike was parried and directed out of the way by a scarlet blade. Lumiya followed up with a kick towards Leia's stomach which the young Jedi dodged.

"I'll give you credit." Lumiya hissed. "You know what you're doing… somewhat."

"I'm starting to get sick of your voice so if you don't mind I recommend we continue."

"You want to come closer to the moment of your funeral? Fine with me."

Lumiya didn't waste a second; Leia barely had time to parry the flash of crimson flying for her head. Cyborg woman here was excellent. This was nothing like the sparring sessions with Luke, this was a real, blood thirsty Sith Lady who was trying to kill her, the… sense of danger was exhilarating, coupled with the adrenaline coursing through her veins (despite the attempts to calm herself), as well as the Force being her ally Leia found herself slashing, cutting, and hacking at an almost unmatchable speed, _almost_, Lumiya was doing a damn fine job parrying all of her blows.

Finally Leia slipped up and spun to get more power in her next strike, she was fast, but not nearly fast enough. The moment her peripheral vision caught sight of Lumiya, who looked horrific lit by the crimson and amethyst light, a lightsaber ripped into her stomach and ripped a huge gash across it.

Leia was so shocked for a moment she didn't even feel the pain, she desperately tried to direct a blow at Lumiya but her muscles did not cooperate. Her blade went dead and fell to the ground, she arrived on the durasteel shortly after it, all she could see was the blackness engulfing them, pierced only by crimson light from Lumiya's blade, the darkness grew and seemed to swallow her up… then… she saw nothing at all.

_**Hmm… what are your thoughts here, be brutal. I was trying to make this chapter a little suspenseful, was it?**_


	18. The Clash with Death

_**Sorry for the delay in updating. I've joined SwinAngel's RPG forum and am two of my original characters. Lord Xarkun, and Xen so I've been writing out their parts on the forum. Moving on to one of the most complicated fights I believe that I will ever do…. It just involves too many people so I'm taking some out right away, remind me never to have a group of like 7 Jedi/Sith break into a star destroyer to attempt to kill 1 Sith Lord plus his apprentice who has not yet arrived. Oh and you get to see what happens with Leia so that's a plus too. As the name indicates there will be more dead people… who die in this chapter.**_

Chapter 18: The Clash with Death

The darkness was promptly invaded by a flash of crimson. What the Force was going on? It took several moments for the scarlet light source to come into focus, Leia found she was lying on her back and staring straight up at a light, about twenty feet above. Her mind was foggy and her judgment was cloudy, her vision was slowly returning to normal, and she had an overwhelming pain in her stomach. Slowly Leia's hand fell on top of her abdomen. A cauterized gash was ripped through it and jaws of pain locked around her the moment she touched the wound. Suddenly it all became clear. Lumiya had critically wounded her, and she had planted bombs on the main reactor!

Leia called upon the Force for an aid, she stood up painfully.

The _Executor _could explode in seconds! Leia reached out with her senses to search for Lumiya, all was not lost, it was not too late. The Sith Lady was currently sprinting towards a hanger bay in order to steal a ship and escape. Leia realized she had to get to an escape pod, now.

XxX

_Chimaera, Bridge_

Sidious spun on his heel as the prisoners were led onto the _Chimaera's _bridge. He smiled widely as they were ordered to a halt a few feet before him. The group looked into the eyes of the evil dark lord coldly; this simply increased Sidious's smiled and strengthened him.

"Welcome my friends." He greeted. "I want your executions to be public. Your men will look upon your deaths and their morale will decrease, my men will laugh as you die, and then it will be over. I will conquer each and every one of you pathetic rebels, and rogue Imperials! Grand Admiral, order a cease fire, ensure that the rebels and the traitors comply."

"Yes sir." Thrawn said from near the crew pits. He relayed the order to the proper officer. As it was being carried out Anakin, Mace Windu, Luke, Obi-Wan, Siri, Mara, and Raz all contemplated their fate as they stood before the Emperor. Here they would make their last stand, or they would die.

They're gazes, as well as the Emperor's, shifted to space where numerous capitol ships and thousands of tiny star fighters fired upon one another. Suddenly, and rapidly, the laser blasts began to let up, and soon they no longer existed, every capitol ship and star fighter had ceased fire.

"Is the channel ready?" Sidious asked.

"Yes," Thrawn replied.

"Begin the broadcast."

"Of course sir." said Thrawn.

Seconds later a holographic image of the _Chimaera_'s entire bridge appeared on every capitol ship, in every room that there was a holoprojector, whether they be Imperial or rebel, it appeared in every star fighter, before every pilot. Everyone would witness the destruction of the Rebel Alliance, and the traitorous Imperials in the form of execution, the slaughtering of their leaders. The Emperor turned to face the camera which was now everyone's eye.

"Pathetic rebel scum, traitorous Imperials," he addressed. "Now you witness the death of your force using commanders! Gaze upon the destruction that awaits you… and die."

In a swift movement Sidious extended a blood red lightsaber and strode up to Mara Jade first. She spat at his feet but he paid no mind.

"You my dear will be the first to die. Your betrayal of me was a foolish, unforgivable mistake. Look where it has gotten you… prepare to die my _Hand_."

"Wait!" cried Raz Vena. Sidious snarled angrily, spinning to face her viciously.

"You are in no position to demand anything Raz! You've long outlived your useful life; I should have killed you long before Korriban."

"Then kill me now, before Mara." Raz requested.

"You're a hero now aren't you Raz? Very well, you shall be the first to die. Know that your sacrifice will be in vain, and that Mara will now suffer greatly at my hand!"

Sidious raised his saber for the killing strike, he brought it down fast, it was his intention to slice a gash in Raz's head, however he found himself cutting through her bindings. She had spun so fast he did not even notice, and before he could stop himself she was free. In a flash Raz held her own activated lightsaber high. The Emperor was still reeling from shock, he could do absolutely nothing to prevent a kick from Raz's foot contacting with his chest. Sidious fell backwards into the crew pit, amidst the confused and frightened officers.

Raz then turned and cut all of her comrades free before any armed crew members on the bridge could move to stop them, there were now seven enemies instead of one. The bridge of the _Chimaera _erupted in chaos as the squad of Jedi, former Sith, and assassins moved to slaughter everyone on it. Plus all of this pandemonium was being broadcast to every ship in both fleets, including the fighters. The battle in space began again shortly after the one on the _Chimaera_'s bridge started.

XxX

A small, gray hulled escape pod blasted out of a bay in the _Executor_'s blue-gray hull. Leia occupied it. She had called upon the Force to aid her escape from the ship and she now directed her escape pod towards Admiral Ackbar's ship, _Home One_,which was nearby. At this Leia looked back out of her view port at the _Executor_, Lumiya had already blasted off, she was just waiting for it to explode.

XxX

Piett gazed in confusion at the screen over the officer's shoulder. Apparently Leia and the intruder were no longer near the main reactor… odd.

"Oh FORCE!" the officer cried.

"What?!" Piett asked in alarm.

"I just intercepted a signal sent to several bombs on the main reactor!"

Piett's eyes widened… they were all dead.

"Abandon ship!" he cried but it was far too late. The _Executor_ jolted violently as the main reactor exploded. It blew off the entire back side of the ship and incinerated the bridge tower; the remaining part of its dagger like bow began to sink down towards the planet Yavin IV. At this it seemed all hope was lost for the Rebel Alliance, and their new, rogue, Imperial allies.

XxX

For a slight moment the chaos on the _Chimaera_'s bridge ceased, every face was drawn to look outside of the view ports as the _Executor _exploded into a furious red and orange cloud of superheated gasses. Anakin's eyes widened in horror, Leia had been on that ship! Frantically he searched for any sign of his daughter after cutting down a crew member that had the audacity to run up right in front of him and shoot at his head with a blaster pistol. His mind probed the battle area with the Force, mostly near the useless, triangular bow which had once been part of Obi-Wan's command ship. There he found Leia, safe in a minuscule escape pod. He was now able to breathe easier and focus on the task at hand.

The carnage on the bridge continued, with more an more crew members falling every second to the hands of either Obi-Wan, Siri, Mara, Raz, Like, Mace, or Anakin himself. For several long moments this continued while the Emperor lay temporarily disabled and a deserted crew pit.

Obi-Wan sprinted across the slab of metal that formed a bridge over the two crew pits, cutting down officers as he went, his peripheral vision caught movement from the Emperor who stood up slowly and leapt out of pit. By this time most of the officers on the bridge were dead including Captain Pellaeon whose body lay strewn across control panels in the left hand control pit. Thrawn was backed up into a corner with the lightsabers of Mace Windu, Luke, and Raz angled at his blue neck.

As the Emperor's feet touched the ground of the bridge Obi-Wan turned promptly as Mara, Siri, and Anakin rushed up next to him. Each of the four angled their blades at the Emepror's neck. The sense of victory from the side of the rebels overwhelmed them, the entire spectacle of the events on the _Chimaera_'s bridge were, after all, being broadcast potentially to every combatant in the battle.

"Surrender Sidious," Obi-Wan commanded. "Or we will be forced to kill your precious Grand Admiral."

"Go ahead, execute him. It is of no consequence!" Sidious spat. Everyone looked at him with disgust, he had once again proved that he was the heartless, evil, conniving monster they had all thought. Thrawn used this distraction to draw a blaster pistol, before he could fire, however, Mace's amethyst blade sliced cleanly through his neck. This created another distraction as everyone glanced at the Grand Admiral's blue head when it fell to the floor. It was the Emperor's turn. Before they could prevent it Sidious stuck his hand outward toward Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mara, and Siri. They then found themselves flying toward the opposite side of the bridge. Before they hit the wall Sidious drew his crimson weapon and launched himself at Mace, Luke, and Raz who were simultaneously charging at him.

By they time they reached each other Anakin, Obi-Wan, Mara, and Siri had all hit the wall and slid down its side, effectively rendering them disabled, at least for the moment.

Raz was the first to slash at Sidious, followed by Mace and Luke, the Emperor deflected both of their blows while dodging Raz's concurrently. As he hit Windu's and Skywalker's weapons out of the way he slashed at Raz's neck so fast that_ he_ could hardly see it. Raz's saber went up to meet his but it was too later, the crimson blade cut through her neck, beheading Raz like Mace had beheaded Thrawn. As her body fell to the floor Sidious turned to face his remaining opponents. He slashed at Mace who back stepped to avoid having a gash torn in his chest, the Emperor then turn to Luke, the young Jedi attempted an overhead strike, however Sidious's saber flicked to the left and Luke found that his hand and saber were now clattering to the floor.

He grabbed the charred stump that had once housed his hand and screamed in agony. Sidious's upper lip curled into a toothy smile, he snarled viciously and kicked Luke into the right hand crew pit. The Jedi fell on his back and groaned loudly, he then passed out from the pain. The Emperor then directed his attention back to Mace Windu.

"I've waited a long time for this moment." Sidious snarled.

"Wait longer!" Mace cried as he viciously struck at Sidious's arm. The dark lord parried the blow, spun and directed a cut at the Jedi's neck. Mace swung out of the way and pulled his saber arm back which then fell to the floor, along with his deactivating violet blade as Sidious severed it. Mace gritted his teeth, somewhat from pain, mostly from surprise. Sidious followed up by spinning, his robes swirling like a cyclone of black, he stopped, his back facing toward the Jedi, flipped his blade three times and stabbed back. The crimson weapon pierced Mace through the chest, and exited his back side. The dying Jedi master gulped as the saber exited his body and Sidious spun to face him.

The man fell to his knees, his hands gripping at the fatal wound. He glanced up at Sidious one last time.

"You go to hell!" he grunted, before falling backwards and tumbling into the crew pit.

"You first," Sidious sneered. He then turned to focus his attention on the four remaining enemies, Anakin, Obi-Wan, Siri, and Mara.

XxX

As Leia's escape pod neared _Home One_ she grabbed a comlink from her pocket and keyed in Admiral Ackbar's frequency. Seconds later an image of the Calamarian's head materialized on the communicator.

"Padawan Leia, what is it?" the admiral asked in a gravelly voice.

"Get someone to landing bay R-2019… I'm landing."

"You don't look well…" Ackbar replied.

"I'm wounded… need medical attention."

"Alright," Ackbar said urgently. "Padmé has just landed in that hanger. I'll alert her."

"Thanks," Leia replied meekly, abruptly ending the transmission. With her last ounce of strength she directed her escape pod on the proper course. Several long, painful moments later it shot into the hanger bay, skidding across the ground before crashing into the opposite wall, luckily nothing was damaged but the paint job. Padmé was just debarking the small rebel transport with her modest escort while deactivating a comlink in unison when Leia's escape pod flew by. She had come to this ship since the previous one she had been on exploded.

Padmé gasped as her daughter's escape vessel crashed into the wall. She and her escort ran in alarm toward the pod which opened right before she got there. She found her daughter lying down on her side in the small pod, a grievous gash ripped across her stomach, cauterized as if cut by a lightsaber.

"Get me a medical team quickly!" Padmé commanded to one of her escorts who promptly ran off for help. She looked back down at her daughter who was gravely wounded, but alive.

XxX

Anakin, Obi-Wan, Siri, and Mara all surrounded Sidious, angling their blades at him. He spun slowly to look all of them in the eye.

"Surrender," Anakin commanded, he was absolutely enraged after what the Emperor did to Luke, Mace, and even Raz. He resisted the urge to simply stab the Sith Lord now, although he knew it would never be that easy. "We outnumber you."

At this the Emperor let out an insane cackle.

"That's what your friends thought, look what happened to them." he scoffed.

For a small fraction of a moment Anakin contemplated this, and then he looked to his left to find that Mara was no longer standing there. Briefly he thought:

_What the hell?_

He then noticed Mara's motionless form lying against a control panel in the left crew pit amongst dead officers, a trickle of blood ran down her forehead, stemming from the spot her head had contacted with the panel, she had been rendered unconscious, and thrown into the pit from a kick delivered by Sidious that was so fast Anakin did not notice it. Distracted by this he barely had time to block the crimson blade flying at his head.

Sidious attacked them all in unison. For him it was like facing some sluggish Jedi with three lightsabers, for Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Siri it was like they were each facing their own individual opponents, all of whom were moving at the speed of light, or sound perhaps. Sidious, on average, exchanged moves with one of them at least three times in intervals of less than three seconds. He struck here at Obi-Wan, turned and stabbed at Siri, spun while slashing at Anakin, then went back to Obi-Wan with a chop to the leg. This continued randomly, the Sith Lord moved so fast that the group barely had time to parry his blows. Obi-Wan had initially been infuriated about what happened to Mara, but he was forced to move so fast he could not even _think_ about his furiousness.

They exchanged strikes and blocks like this for several minutes before the door to the bridge shot open and the entire thing was put on hold. Everyone half expected storm troopers to barge in and attempt to save their Emperor, however with the lack of command from Thrawn, Pellaeon, or Sidious the _Chimaera _was in complete chaos, troopers ran around haphazardly, looking for away out of the commander-less ship that was taking an increasing number of hits from enemy vessels.

Instead of storm troopers stepping onto the bridge however, Lady Lumiya sprinted on. She charged at Siri who abruptly turned to face the new enemy. Before she could get a strike in however, a lightsaber plunged into her left shoulder. She dropped her own weapon and cried out in pain.

"SIRI!" Obi-Wan bellowed in horror as Lumiya's saber was pulled out of his wife's shoulder and the cyborg Sith kicked her to the floor. The battle began once more.

_**Not much of a cliffy, but… I'm sure you'll be waiting eagerly to see what happens next. After all I killed off Yoda, Mace, and Raz, as well as Tarkin, and Piett. Who knows if Mara will die from the injury she sustained? What if Lumiya just stabs Siri?! Find out in the next and last chapter! Yes, the next chapter will be the last, and I'm going to be nice at tell you what it shall be called. The last chapter of The Fall of the Sith shall be titled… The Fall of the Sith! So stay tuned and await chapter 19: The Fall of the Sith! Oh and if you could review I would appreciate it. Also does this chapter seem short to anyone? It is about 2700 something words I think… it just seems shorter.**_


	19. The Fall of the Sith

_**We come to it at last. The final chapter of The Fall of the Sith.**_

Chapter 19: The Fall of the Sith

Obi-Wan threw himself at Lumiya, lightsaber humming like a saw, ready to hack the Sith woman to pieces. Siri lay groaning in pain on the floor, her short blond hair fanned out over her face. As Obi-Wan ran to face his opponent, Anakin turned to the Emperor.

"It's odd, isn't it?" Sidious said as Anakin and he began to circle one another while Obi-Wan and Lumiya burst into a furious duel of hacking, slashing, cutting, and parrying.

"What's that?" Anakin asked coolly.

"It was my original intention, since the day I met you Anakin, to turn you to the dark side. But… after you refused to kill Count Dooku that was impossible."

"So instead you turned to corrupt my master! I'll kill you for that." Anakin stated with a conviction that was completely and utterly set in stone. Today Sidious would die, or he would.

"You're welcome to try."

It was now Anakin's turn to propel himself in fury at the other Sith Lord.

Obi-Wan and Anakin dueled the Sith simultaneously. Obi-Wan struck at Lumiya's face, while Anakin slashed at Sidious's feet, both Sith blocked and went in to exchange their own strikes. This was it, now came the time of the Sith's ultimate, and utter annihilation, or their continuing rise to power. As the former Jedi Master, and his former apprentice's dueled, the master's daughter lay in the left crew pit, unconscious from her head contacting with a now blood stained control console, and the apprentice's son lay in the right one, passed out from the intense agony of losing a hand. Anakin and Obi-Wan dueled on because of their anger at the Sith, for inflicting the torment on their children.

Obi-Wan struck hard to Lumiya's right, she hit his blade out of the way and came around with a round house kick towards his head. Obi-Wan ducked as her foot swept through thin air, the momentum causing her to spin around. Taking this valuable opportunity the former Sith Lord slashed at the cyborg's back, however Lumiya's saber flew to parry. There they locked for a brief moment.

"I'll give you one thing," Obi-Wan said. "You're a better duelist than I originally thought."

"Thank you Kenobi." Lumiya spat as she cut the lock, spun fast and struck hard. Her saber was met by Obi-Wan's, they formed a crimson X in the air and locked once more. "Now prepare to die."

"Oh I don't think so." Obi-Wan hissed as he pulled his palm back and then thrust it forward, the Force energy he had gathered expanded and flew out, pushing Lumiya away, right into the wall of the bridge which she hit and slid down. Seconds later she pulled her head up to see Obi-Wan charging at her, lightsaber pulled back and ready to incinerate her heart… if she had one.

However the Sith Lady did not allow that to happen, the moment Obi-Wan was in range she gathered the Force around her and used it to propel herself, feet first, straight at Obi-Wan. This was clearly not what the ex Sith Lord had expected, both of her legs hit him full power and sent him backwards, he flipped in the air once and landed on his back, his hand lost his crimson weapon which deactivated and rolled away from his grasp.

Lumiya was right above him. She raised one hand up high, holding her crimson blade steady for the killing blow.

"Pity," she said to herself. "You were much better as Vader."

The Sith Lady brought her arm and weapon down, however two hands shot up and stopped her from completing her killing blow. Obi-Wan's hands grasped tightly around her forearm, he twisted it hard and Lumiya flipped to the side, losing her weapon on the way down. The victor of that little brawl smiled to himself and leapt up, calling his dead lightsaber hilt back to his hand and activating the crimson blade, he towered over his fallen enemy, flipped his saber once, and angled it down to stab the woman. However, before he could proceed a terrible crack filled the air as Sidious had sliced Anakin's lightsaber hilt in half and kicked him hard in the jaw so quickly Obi-Wan did not notice. He clearly saw his old padawan's jawbone fall out of place though. The Emperor raised his saber for the deadly slash and brought it down swiftly. However his scarlet weapon was stopped by another of the same color.

The Emperor's yellow eye glanced towards his traitorous, former apprentice. Obi-Wan smiled again and used the Force to throw Sidious to the other side of the bridge.

"You okay?" he asked Anakin who simply nodded.

"Jaw's broken," he managed to say, or at least that somewhat what it sounded like. Obi-Wan smiled slightly, but his mouth then formed an angry grimace as he sensed Lumiya approaching him from behind. When she was a mere few feet behind his back he turned at the speed of light and ran his crimson blade right through her heart, or at least where it would be if she did indeed have one. The cyborg's eyes widened, her weapon fell to the floor, useless. Obi-Wan gritted his teeth even harder as he pulled it out and stood, just as Lumiya dropped to her knees.

"Die." Obi-Wan said quietly. Lumiya's eyes stared into his for one cold moment.

"You… bas—"

Before she could spit out the profane word upon her death, however, Obi-Wan's scarlet blade sliced clean through her neck.

"That was for Siri." Obi-Wan stated coldly. He looked to his wife who was lying silently on the floor, she might have been dead, although her chest was rising and falling to the rhythm of her breathing. Obi-Wan sensed she was alright. He turned to face the spot where Sidious was now standing, crimson saber in hand. His insane fury had completely taken a hold of him, the Sith Lord's eyes were utterly black, and no light reflected upon them at all, he looked almost nonhuman. Eyes were said to be a window into the soul, well, Darth Sidious's had been revealed at last.

"You," Sidious growled to his former Sith apprentice. "Will die for what you have done here today."

Before Obi-Wan could retort though, the _Chimaera_ jolted violently. There was no longer any crew to operate her, systems were now unoccupied and were malfunctioning because of the damage they had sustained. Of course no one was firing on this ship anymore since everyone's leaders were on board. However the star destroyer was now its own enemy as it transferred power automatically to attempt to repair systems, shortly after the jolt all the light faded from the bridge, it was not replaced by emergency lights however, as there was no one to turn them on. The entire bridge of the _Chimaera _was bathed in bloody light from the two combatant's active lightsabers

For a while they just stood there, staring into one another's eyes. Anakin watched them intently, holding his broken jaw, they were both oblivious to him, and also failed to notice as Mara's head rolled slightly, and her eye lids fluttered open. Finally a cold, raspy voice pierced the thick silence. It emanated from the Emperor, but sounded like the voice of all evil.

"Traitor," Sidious hissed. "You will die, and then I'll kill your family, one by one. You can take comfort in the fact that they shall suffer greatly, and when they plead to me, when they… beg for death, I, being a merciful Lord will grant their request."

"You have to get through me first you ugly bastard." Obi-Wan retaliated, his voice as cold as midnight on Hoth.

"So be it." The Emperor barked, he pulled his lightsaber back by his hooded, hideous head, and angled it forward as though he were about to thrust it into the very heart of the person who would defeat him. Obi-Wan raised his weapon in his classic Soresu stance that he had abandoned when he left the Jedi Order, and thereafter had adopted a new, more aggressive form of Soresu with Makashi, Djem So, and the smallest bit of Ataru thrown in. However that was far complicated and too ponderous to work against the Emperor's style of Juyo. Sidious flew into the air like a torpedo, his lightsaber extending in front of him as though he planned to drill right through Obi-Wan. The former Sith waited until Sidious was a mere two feet in front of him before side stepping and cutting down at the Emperor's back.

Sidious's lightning fast speed showed itself again as he dodged, landed on his booted feet and spun to face Obi-Wan, then after following with a strike to the head, waist and feet, all of which were parried, Obi-Wan's speed did not match the Emperor's, but it was efficient enough to protect him from becoming incapacitated, but for how long?

Their fight went on for a length of ten minutes, Obi-Wan, because he let go of the dark side almost fully, was tiring, used to wielding awesome power fueled by his rage, which was now fueled only by his desire to kill Sidious, that will was strong enough in itself, but he was not sure how long he could hold. The Emperor was constantly on the offensive and clearly gaining the upper hand as he struck with slashed with lightning fast speed, Obi-Wan's sluggish responses were barely adequate enough to stop Sidious's blood red weapon from killing him. The battle would end in three simple moves… now.

As Sidious pulled his weapon away from Obi-Wan he came around with a lightning fast strike to the head which was so powerful Obi-Wan's legs nearly buckled, his exhaustion was growing. Sidious had not even come close to breaking a sweat. The Emperor cackled wickedly, spun and came around with a strike to Obi-Wan's right side, which was stopped, but just barely. Obi-Wan felt his strength sapped away and was powerless to stop the Emperor's next slash from cutting straight through his lightsaber hilt, rendering the blade useless.

The next event seemed to happen in slow motion, like action sequences in old holovids, or a speeder crash on the HoloNet movies. Except this was happening to Obi-Wan, and for one sick moment… as the Emperor deactivated his weapon… and extended his clawed hands… Obi-Wan knew… he was going to die.

Then it all seemed to play at a normal speed and blue-white lightning exploded from the Sith Lord's finger tips. It contacted with Obi-Wan's body and sent him falling fast to the floor. For several long, agonizing moments the Emperor stood in his spot and continued to discharge the Sith Lightning into Obi-Wan's body. The former Sith Lord withered and cried out in pain on the floor as Anakin watched helplessly, he could not move, Sidious wouldn't let him.

Then as Obi-Wan just as Obi-Wan felt death gripping at him the Emperor halted his relentless attack, his eyes turning back to their normal red tinged yellow.

"You have paid the price for your stupidity." Sidious snarled. He then let out another short dose of lightning; it felt as though a million lightsabers were stabbing into each and every part of Obi-Wan's skin, once the Emperor let up Obi-Wan jolted uncontrollably as the electricity still ran across him. "And now… my _apprentice_, you… will… die."

"No!" Anakin cried. Sidious's eyes morphed from a sickly yellow to a disturbing black. He let off a quick dose of lightning Anakin's way which hit the Jedi full force. He then turned back to Obi-Wan.

"Prepare to die." The Emperor cackled. Obi-Wan felt his own heart beating as the Emperor angled his hands down; he tried to move but could not. His muscles would not respond, he was far too exhausted. Sidious let out one last cackle before… he turned his head to the right as Mara Jade leapt out of the crew pit and called her lightsaber to her open palm. Sidious was caught off guard, his hold on Anakin was unintentionally released, Anakin took the chance and leapt up, calling Mace Windu's lightsaber to his hand and activating the violet blade, he then charged at the evil Sith Lord.

Mara landed behind The Emperor before Anakin reached him, blood ran down her face from the injury she had sustained when hitting the control console. But clearly it no longer affected her. Before the Dark Lord could turn to face his new foe Mara thrust her foot into the back of his leg, behind his knee. Sidious yelped in pain and fell to the ground, kneeling before Obi-Wan. It was then that Anakin reached Mara's side, with one move so fast that it rivaled Sidious's incredible speed the Jedi stabbed Mace Windu's amethyst blade through the Emperor's back, incinerating his icy, black heart. Sidious gasped in pain and astonishment, he had been defeated. Mara spat right on his hood before she sliced his head off with her own crimson blade. Anakin and she exchanged glances and smiled.

The Sith were no more.

Obi-Wan gave out a strangled, croaking chuckle.

"You did well Anakin, Mara. I always knew you were the Chosen One, my old padawan."

"I never could have done it without your training." Anakin replied.

"And I could never have found the strength to kill him without you being my father." Mara added. Siri then stood up and limped over to her husband, holding her wounded shoulder tightly.

"You did good Obi-Wan." She said.

XxX

With the Emperor dead, and the entire fleet having witnessed it the Imperials surrendered and the Rebel Alliance came out victorious. Following Sidious's murder Obi-Wan technically became the new Emperor, as Sidious had failed to announce his traitorous apprentice would no longer be his successor after the betrayal. However Obi-Wan did not wish to rule the Empire, it was cruel, harsh, and terrible. He handed his position over to both Mon Mothma and Bail Organa, within a month the Empire was reorganized into the New Republic under the promises of a fairer, safer, more secure, and free society. Shortly after that the Senate began to reform, where Padmé joined as senator of Naboo.

Meanwhile Anakin, Luke, Leia, and Siri were able to reform the Jedi Order which would soon flourish. It was only later that Obi-Wan and Mara were convinced to join and become part of the four member council, increasing its number to six. That was all, the storm troopers and the Imperial army were disbanded at Obi-Wan's order before he handed Mon Mothma the position, the remaining Rebel Alliance soldiers formed the basis of the New Republic's army. However they were not needed as the galaxy sank into a time of peace. The Empire had been defeated, the fall of the Sith had concluded, now the galaxy would be protected and safe, because of the rise of the new Order of Jedi.

_**Told you the last word would either be Jedi or Sith! Well, this series has come to an end. I am now moving on to plot my next SW fic which involves a series of events to lead Luke Skywalker down the path to the Dark Side. It will start off with Padmé and Anakin, both Jedi who eventually fall in love and prevent the Trade Federation from conquering Naboo, eventually they get married and have children, the Jedi Order is forced to except them because of a reason not yet worked out. Eventually Palpatine sets his sights on an emotionally unstable Luke eventually corrupts him, sending him to his fall to the Dark Side. Well, look forward to that in the future now that The Fall of the Sith has concluded. Thanks for reading.**_


End file.
